Ruth Platner: Voters Should Rely On Facts And Not Political Fiction
The following letter appeared in local newspapers and is reprinted here with permission of the author Ruth Platner. Ruth is Chair of the Charlestown Planning Commission and a candidate for Planning in the 2020 election.
There are things I love about social media. It has reunited me with childhood friends and allows limitless sharing of photographs, but it is really harming political discourse, especially in Charlestown.
On Monday, July 13, the Charlestown Town Council’s agenda included a formal offer from a property owner to sell one acre of beachfront property, adjacent to Charlestown Town Beach, to the town. Because it was a unique property, which might not be available again for 20 years, and because of its size and location and the ongoing problems with crowding at the beach, the Town Council wanted to discuss the offer made to the town by the seller.
As soon as the agenda item was published the conspiracy theorists went to work on local Facebook and Nextdoor groups saying the town council was going to “use the surplus,” “create a bigger parking lot,” “force this through,” “no notice,” “paying off friends,” “being sneaky,” “dirty deal” – and other things I hesitate to repeat. In all their posts they buried the fact that what was on the agenda was a discussion about possibly putting this on the November ballot for the voters to decide – the voters – not the Town Council. Also not mentioned was that the offer was from the seller to the Town, that no one in town had ever proposed or agreed to the terms and conditions, and that all members of the Town Council had received the offer at the exact same time.
As Town Council President Virginia Lee explained at Monday night’s meeting, this was put on the agenda so that the Town Council could have an open and public discussion about the offer from the property owner.
In the end, the Town Council voted unanimously to reject the offer, largely because of the seller’s insistence on a nonrefundable deposit of almost $50,000. The councilors briefly discussed some pros and cons of the purchase, but all agreed the discussion could go nowhere because paying taxpayers’ money for an uncertain outcome would violate their fiduciary duty.
The initial Facebook post on this topic said the Town Council “will consider whether to purchase this property for $2.5 million dollars, over $1 million above the appraised value” but skillfully buried the referendum discussion that would have had the voters decide, and the fact that the proposal was not even the Town Council’s. That original misleading post was authored by CRU, our political opposition in the November election, and the dozens of slanderous comments that followed it to different social media sites were managed and fueled by their members. This is not the first time that CRU has misconstrued facts and created false rumors for their political advantage. The facts don’t matter when you are willing to lie to get elected and the flow of social media makes countering lies more difficult than fighting fires. It’s going to be a rocky campaign, and I hope that the voters of Charlestown will rely on facts and not political fiction created to divide our community.
You can learn more about the author, Ruth Platner, at her profile page.
July 18, 2020 @ 1:01 pm
Thanks Ruth for adding much needed clarity on this issue!
July 17, 2020 @ 7:05 am
I thought the recent article in the Westerly paper explained the town’s decision clearly. while I would love to have had extra room at the beach, I thought the council made the right decision.
July 16, 2020 @ 6:58 pm
Thank you, Ruth for a most factual and comprehensive explanation of this most recent and baseless attempt by those who continue to falsely undermine the integrity of CCA leaders.
With no vision or strategic plan that might bring ideas and an open and honest discourse to improve the overall quality of our town, the CRU and their supporters continue to cast unwarranted aspersions and spread seeds of discontent.
To the CCA leadership and supporters, thank you for keeping our town the crown jewel of RI!
July 16, 2020 @ 4:45 pm
I add my thanks to Ruth for her clarification …. and to the council for its sensible, wise, and ethical way of handling this issue. Thank goodness we have such capable and honest people willing to put their time and efforts into the management of our lovely town.
What can be said about the fake-news-mongers that has not been said already by others above? It is so sad.
July 16, 2020 @ 1:40 pm
First ask Who Benefits? from the disinformation so prevalent on social media. Then you will know where the lies and smears have their start. If you pay attention to the social media sites that promote such nonsense, you will realize that it is not just bored housewives or contrary trolls that benefit, but some noted locals that would benefit from a smear campaign against CCA and the town council. Remember the non-stories from 2019 regarding tulip farms, Christmas displays, and gun confiscation. Where did those non-stories originate? Think about it.
July 16, 2020 @ 11:27 am
We are so lucky to have Ruth to set things straight. Very disappointed in the individuals that create the false narrative for fear mongering. I shudder to think of how many people were fooled by the lies. This is the wrong direction for our town and country.
July 16, 2020 @ 10:54 am
Great job clarifying the “truth” from the “fiction” as manifested by the opposing faction. I did see a couple of comments on Face Book praising the town council for not considering the offer, but…..didn’t realize that it was such a heated proposal! As always the dirty Charlestown politics comes out this time of the year. What I have seen over the years in the Charlestown political arena was something called the “whisper campaign” where a rumor would be started as a “whisper”, and….with the small town gossip within a week that whisper turned into a “roar”!!! It is sad to witness what “fake news” does in the political setting on both the local and national levels. I can only suggest to the council to keep doing what they have been doing, in my opinion (as with many others) we think they are doing a great job!!
July 16, 2020 @ 10:31 am
Unfortunately we have people that feel to make issues bigger than they are by sensationalising it. Also unfortunately is the fact they no one verifies the information before posting it. Maybe they don’t care that they are looking like they are crying wolf but they lose credibility each time they do it. I think some of these people who think they know everything that is going on maybe should try out for the council on the next election or join some of the sub committees that are in need of help.
July 16, 2020 @ 9:52 am
Thank you for clarifying it all, Ruth.
I saw some heated arguments on NextDoor but chose to ignore it.
July 16, 2020 @ 11:08 am
So pleased to read Ruth Platner’s explanation of this situation. Thanks for being there to set the record straight.