Headlines & Opinions (Click "Archives" or "Articles" for older material)

KENNEDY & LANGEVIN - CAP & TRADE
July 2, 2009

ANOTHER BAD SENATE BILL
June 21, 2009

In February of this year, the Senate introduced a bill (S-713) to amend RI General Law Chapter 28-9.3 entitled "Certified School Teachers' Arbitration" with the following:

"In the event that a successor collective bargaining agreement has not been agreed to by the parties, then the existing contract shall continue in effect until such time as an agreement has been reached between the parties."

The Westerly Sun, [Committee opposes bill extending contracts], June 21, 2009 reports:

“It is difficult to understand how anyone with an understanding of how it would operate could support it,” RISC Chairman Harry Staley said of the bill. “Unless a contract expires on its stated expiration date, there would be no incentive… for one of the parties to negotiate, depending upon who will benefit from the proposed extension.”

This basically blocks the town officials' efforts to eliminate or reduce the cost of expensive benefits.  The unions win and the taxpayers take it on the chin again.

Our own Senator, Sen. Louis DiPalma, voted in favor of this bill.  We shall remind you of this at the next election. Senator Louis P. DiPalma Democrat, District 12 Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Tiverton

FIRE CHIEF RESIGNS!
(From: newsblog.projo.com)
June 11, 2009

LITTLE COMPTON, R. I. -- Fire Chief Robert Hay Wimer apparently resigned Thursday during an annual performance review by the Town Council after only one year on the job, according to Town Council President Robert L. Mushen.

Mushen said Wimer and the Town Council were in a closed meeting, at a routine performance review when Wimer was asked a question. Instead of answering it, "He pushed his cell phone and radio across the table and said, 'Here are these ,and I will turn in my vehicle shortly,' " Mushen said. He would not say what the question was.

Wimer did not give a reason for leaving, Mushen said. He sent Wimer a letter delivered to his house by a police officer that said the council is taking his verbal actions as a resignation. Mushen said he had not heard a reply from Wimer. The previous fire chief had been there nearly three years Mushen said.

Little Compton firefighter Fred Melnyk, the union president, said that Wimer had the full support of the union and the Fire Department. He said the department had not been notified of Wimer's status and could not comment on his apparent resignation.

Mushen said Wimer was a sergeant with the U.S. Air Force for 22 years where his last position was operations chief for a shift of 102 firefighters manning seven stations at the Eglin Air Force base in Florida. His father Herbert "Pete" Wimer had been a fire chief when Robert was a child, Mushen said.

In Little Compton Wimer presided over a Fire Department with 8 firefighters. He earned an annual salary of $50,000, according to Mushen.

"What we are going to do now is interview the eligible members of the department as to their interest in serving interim and or as a permanent roll as well as request assistance from the state Fire Chief's Association to look for someone who might come in at interim," Mushen said.

WELCOME BACK PRINCIPAL GIBNEY!
May 20, 2009

James Gibney, Principal of the Wilbur & McMahon School, attended tonight's School Committee meeting after recovering from a heart attack.  He has been a great asset to the school and we welcome him back.

FINANCIAL TOWN MEETING UNEVENTFUL!
May 19, 2009

Tonight's Little Compton Financial Town Meeting lasted about one hour from start to finish.  The end result is a tax rate that stays the same for another year.  Our only criticism was that the Moderator, Larry Anderson, was somewhat inconsistent with his rulings on what could be done and what could not be done within Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Procedures.  There was a motion to vote on all money-related strokes in a single vote. The voters agreed to that.  As has always been the case, the voters could take selected strokes out of the block and discuss/amend those separately.  There was one attempt to that, but the voters rejected it.  It was at this point that the Moderator allowed discussion of several town departments (school, police, fire) even though the associated strokes were NOT taken out of the block and what they had to say was not germane to the business at hand.  Then the Moderator said the voters could amend any stroke inside the block without taking it out of the block.  In fact, he did just that with one stroke and allowed it to be increased. This was very confusing and has set the stage for future confusion and irregularities.

SCHOOL BUDGET TOO BIG!
May 13, 2009

At the April 8th meeting of the Little Compton School Committee, the 2009/2010 budget (Fiscal Year 2010) was voted on.  During that meeting, Joe Quinn, a member and former head of the committee, proposed a series of budget cuts in an effort to absolutely minimize the tax burden on the taxpayers during these economic hard times.  The other four members ignored the proposals and wouldn't even 2nd the motion in order to debate the issues.  Mike Harrington, Don Gomez, Lynn Brousseau, and Micah Shapiro are the ones who said no.  We made a video clip of this part of the meeting.  Click on the link below to see how these four people chose to keep your taxes higher than necessary.

(See movie clip)   

TAX RATE TO GO DOWN!
April 23, 2009

At the April 23, 2009 Little Compton Town Council meeting, it was announced that the Fiscal Year 2010 tax rate will be reduced by 1-cent.  It's not much, but it is unlike previous years when the tax rate went up by the maximum allowed under the Paiva Weed Act.  The amount of property taxes raised is called the "levy" and that is only going up by approximately $12,000 over the current Fiscal Year total ($9.4-Million); but, the construction of new homes has expanded the tax base (i.e., more places to get property taxes from) resulting in the tax rate going down.  Although there were more cuts that the School Committee could have made (more to come on that), we congratulate the Town Council, the School Committee, and the Budget Committee for doing the right thing during these economic hard times.  That aren't many other towns than can make this claim.

Principal James Gibney Recovering
April 23, 2009

James Gibney, Principal of the Wilbur & McMahon School, is recovering from an unspecified illness.  We wish him a speedy recovery.

Panders In The School?
April 8, 2009

At the April 8, 2009 meeting of the Little Compton School Committee, one of the agenda items was to sign the contract that had just been negotiated with the support staff (teacher assistants, clerks, custodians, secretaries).  We don't think that the taxpayers made out very well in this new contract in that one of the provisions was how much of the health care premium the workers would pay.  While the rest of us are paying in the 30% to 50% range, this contract calls for only 3%.  What an abysmal job the School Committee did in negotiating this stinker.

Each member was asked to voice his or her opinion on the new contract.  Only Joe Quinn made mention of this ridiculously low co-pay.  But the most obnoxious remarks came from Lynn Brousseau when she insinuated that the workers didn't get enough salary out of the deal and that their union let them down.  This is pandering at its worst.  We need this like a hole in the head.  Watch the video clip.

(See movie clip)   

FINALLY!   We Have CAFS
February 21, 2009

After a long struggle and a lot of effort on the part of the Little Compton Taxpayers Association, we now have a modern day Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) in the Fire Department that will go a long way toward improving the Town's record of saving homes from total loss in a fire. Under the direction of Chief Rob Weimer, the Fire Department purchased a brand new pumper to replace the rusting, inoperative Engine #2.  The new Engine #2 is equipped with CAFS and will be in full operation in April 2009.  For more information, see the CAFS article under "Articles" on the left panel.  There are two remaining steps: (1) retrofit Engine #1 with CAFS; and, (2) try to get the Town's ISO rating lowered in order to get better fire insurance rates for homeowners.

SCHOOL MASSACRE - The Sequel
January 25, 2009

Just watch the video!  (15 minutes)     

CAN I RING THAT UP FOR YOU?
December 21, 2008

Old fashioned cash registers had a bell that would ring every time the cash draw was opened. It was a signal to the store owner that something was going on at the register. It also served as a signal to the customer that they were about to part with some of their hard earned money.  Nowadays, the cash registers are silent. The amount of your purchase is displayed on a computer screen, and, in all likelihood, you slide your credit card through the little slot and don’t give a thought to what you had just spent until you get your bank statement.

Well, it looks like we need to install an old fashioned cash register at the Wilbur & McMahon School House in Little Compton, because we did not have to wait very long for the newly constituted School Committee to start spending our money.

In his first substantive act as the new Chairman, Michael Harrington entered a motion to hire a new “full time” teacher for the balance of the school year to augment the teaching staff for the first grade segment. Guess what? Mr. Harrington has a child in the first grade.

The proposal to beef up the first grade “resources,” as described by the Administration, was introduced by new committee member Lynn “It’s all about the children” Brousseau-LeBreaux who appears to have become the self-anointed Wailing Wall for whining parents and teachers. Our other new member, Micah J. Shapiro, seconded Harrington’s motion, and it was a done deal.

(See movie clip)

Prior to the vote Harrington said that an additional teacher was needed because “there’s a lot of boys in that class and they’re going kind of wild.” Sounds to me like a behavior problem that should be addressed by parents, not the taxpayers.

Back at the cash register, ring up $25,000 for the balance of the school year. The funds just happened to be lying around because Superintendent Dr. Harold Devine had doubled up as principal while we were searching for a new principal following the resignation of Mrs. Blaes.

 But what about next year? The first graders will be moving on up! Shall we change the student/teacher ratio again to accommodate Mr. Harrington’s second grader? And so forth and so on.

Although this is not technically an out-and-out conflict of interest because RI law limits ethics violations to financial gain, but it sure smells like one. Mr. Harrington should have recused himself. You had to be there to appreciate the excitement displayed by Mr. Harrington when the measure passed. He loudly applauded and cheered the vote. I do not remember ever seeing a committee chair displaying such glee at the passing of any action.

The new Chairman, Harrington, created an Ad Hoc committee to look into all-day Kindergarten. That ‘ringing’ sound you hear is the cash register to the tune of $100,000 +/- each year. By the way, one of the Ad Hoc committee members, Mrs. Lynn Brousseau-LeBreaux, has a child who will be entering Kindergarten next year. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what the recommendations of the Ad Hoc committee will be?

(See movie clip)

As the late comic Jimmy Durante used to say, “You ain’t seen noth’n yet.” 2009 promises to be a record year at the Wilbur & McMahon cash register especially in view of the fact that another Ad Hoc committee is close to completing plans to build a new school at a cost reportedly well over 20 million dollars! OMG!

SCHOOL MASSACRE
November 26, 2008

See the Movie (13 min)

In a stunning turn of events today, the newly elected School Committee tossed out experience and accomplishments by electing Attorney Mike Harrington as its Chairman, and rejected incumbent Joe Quinn.  Mr. Quinn, a lifelong educator himself as well as an experienced contract negotiator, has been of tremendous benefit to our school by helping Wilbur & McMahon to be among the best in Rhode Island, attending numerous state conferences and hearings representing our interests, working with the school superintendent to develop fully accountable school department budgets, and taking part in teacher contract negotiations resulting in one of the best contracts ever seen in Little Compton. He also voted to outsource student transportation saving the taxpayers nearly $1 million over a 5-year contract.

In the mean time, Attorney Harrington was frequently absent from the meetings and negotiations, and fought against well behaved budgets and outsourcing transportation.  If you recall, he led the mindless pack at the May 17, 2005 Financial Town Meeting supporting a nearly $600K increase in the school budget with not a clue as to where to spend it.  That meeting dragged on for three evenings due to his misguided antics.  The record shows that the voters rebuked Harrington's senseless proposals.  And now he's the chairman of the School Committee.  Taxpayers beware!

And who caused this?  It was Lynn Brousseau who ran as an endorsed Republican in the November 4th election only to turn against the Republicans by nominating both Attorney Harrington as the Chair; and, new-comer Micah Shapiro, a registered Democrat, as the clerk.  When confronted, her response was that she did not believe in "party loyalty" but was for "the kids".  She also said the teachers are angry and miserable, and so are the children.  She must see something that nobody else does.  She went on to be elected as the vice-chair, and Micah Shapiro became the clerk.  Joe Quinn, Don Gomez, and their combined experience were dumped in favor of two new-comers.  [Click Here for Ms. Brousseau's exact words].

Mr. Harrington  was notorious for not participating in the former School Committee work. He rarely participated in bargaining sessions and allegedly did not read his mail or the agenda before the meetings on numerous occasions.  He refused to participate in the evaluation of the superintendent when invited to do so and left it to the rest of the committee.  How anyone could look at that record, which speaks for itself, and justify the decision to promote such a person to the chair of committee is deranged. And they declare it is "for the kids"! With friends like that, the kids don't need enemies. Duplicity and subterfuge are ugly when dealing with the serious task of the education of our children. The last refuge of scoundrels is to wrap themselves in the mantel of high purpose.

During the last three years there have been many problems of long standing cleaned up by the former leadership of the committee. These deeds were seldom articulated or discussed. Quietly, the problems were simply fixed and they moved on. These problems will be discussed at length in future publications so that the taxpayers of this town can see how badly they were served by the recent election and committee reorganization. 

There was no justification to turn out an experienced educator from the chair - none! And none was offered. To assert that any of them is even close to being as qualified as an educator and leader as Mr. Quinn is absurd. How can they claim it's about "the kids" after pulling such a stunt. The National Education Association vowed to "get" the ones that outsourced the transportation function. They delivered, at the expense of the taxpayers of Little Compton. The taxpayers should be outraged.  This whole thing is nothing more than dirty politics - nothing more.  Nothing! 

What can you do?  Go to the School Committee meetings and voice your opinions loudly and strongly.  They meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm in the school's open court area.