Statement before the Town Council

Regarding Inappropriate Actions of Councilman James Mageau

I would like to register a formal complaint with the Town Council against the recent actions of Councilman James Mageau. During the Rhode Island Presidential Primary on March 4th, Mr. Mageau took it upon himself to challenge citizen volunteers who were collecting signatures at polling places for an e-mail data base list.. He declared their actions illegal and had the Town Clerk call the Board of Elections, who reported that the citizens were not breaking the law. Not getting the response he wanted, he consulted with our Town Solicitor (without the benefit of consulting with other Town Councilors). Our Town Solicitor agreed with Mr. Mageau that the citizens were violating the law and should vacate the premises.

The citizen volunteers did not put up an argument and left even though they believed they were in compliance with written RI State Laws governing the polling place. They were more than 50 feet from the polling place entrances and were not involved in any activity related to the elections or any of the candidates. There was no attempt by the volunteers to influence anyone's vote, all they were doing is asking if Charlestown citizens would like to be placed on an e-mail list and informed of Town Meetings and other Public Policy Issues before the Council.

Contrary to Mr. Mageau’s beliefs and Mr. Craven’s legal opinion that these citizens had broken the law for collecting e-mail signatures is a statement from the Rhode Island Board of Elections that appeared in the Westerly Sun Newspaper. “Robert B. Rapoza, director of elections for the Board of Elections, acknowledged that the solicitation of e-mails for the creation of a database or e-mail list is not a clear violation of state law."

This was a unilateral action of one council member, James Mageau, and it has been found to be without merit or just cause, and not representative of the Council at large. It should be noted that Mr. Craven’s opinion on this matter is just that, an opinion, the Board of Elections was called and they don’t seem to know anything about Mr. Craven’s opinion on this matter.

Once again, we have Mr. Mageau overstepping his authority and attacking the actions of citizen volunteers without cause. Mr. Mageau's behavior on March 4th is but one in a series of incidents since his election where he has bullied or threatened citizens who disagree with him. It has been almost a year since the Chariho Times Newspaper called for Mr. Mageau to resign for his many inappropriate actions. The current Town Charter lacks the procedures for implementing a recall petition to recall an elected official. Therefore, the citizens of Charlestown who deserve much better political representation than what Mr. Mageau has provided Charlestown, will have to wait until the November elections of 2008 to remove Mr. Mageau from elected office and end his reign of terror against the citizens of Charlestown. Also, I would like to request that the Council sanction Mr. Mageau and prohibit him from harassing citizens.

Thank you, for the opportunity to speak and present my views.

Daniel Slattery