The Bristol County Water Authority, and more specifically the chairman of the authority’s board of directors, needs to immediately end its “information-gathering” effort directed against four East Bay residents.
John Jannitto, the BCWA chairman of the board of directors, recently sent a letter to numerous Rhode Island and Massachusetts agencies requesting any correspondence they had from four individuals — Barrington’s Gary Morse and Jeff and Janice Black and Bristol’s Marina Peterson. The “East Bay Four” have been critical of the water authority’s management and practices.
Mr. Jannitto’s letter — it appears that he wrote it without consent from some of the other board members — also asks for a log of calls or meetings that involved any of the four residents. He sent the letter to agencies including the Rhode Island Water Resources Board and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Clearly, the letter is designed to discredit and discourage anyone who might speak out against the authority.
Mr. Jannitto tried to explain the letter as something done for benefit of the ratepayers. He said he believed the “East Bay Four” had cost the authority unnecessary money and had obstructed the board from its normal duties. “I feel that we’re looking out for the welfare of all the ratepayers, all the people of Bristol County,” he said during a recent interview.
We disagree. The BCWA would do much better by its ratepayers by focusing on important tasks at hand: Hiring a new executive director, reducing exorbitant overtime expenditures and improving the authority’s infrastructure.
It’s time to drop this public campaign against four concerned ratepayers. It smacks of petty, vindictive sour grapes.
Comments
JackBaillargeron 6 months ago
Congress Elementary School District v. Warren, et. al. In effort to prevent four women from filing any Public Records Requests without first getting permission from a judge, or from filing future lawsuits, the Congress Elementary School District filed a SLAPP suit on January 28, 2010. The Goldwater Institute, a think tank based in Phoenix, AZ, represented the four defendants. The school district said that it has been harassed so often by Warren that it was not able to functionally educate its students. Toni Wayas, the school district’s superintendent, claimed "that it had, time and time again, complied with the requests" The Goldwater Institute argued that the school district had been in violation of state laws mandating government transparency in the past. Investigations in 2002 and 2007 by the state Ombudsman and Attorney General uncovered violations of the state’s open meeting law by the Attorney General’s Office. According to Carrie Ann Sitren of the Goldwater Institute, this was “a clear attempt to silence people in the community who have been critical of the board’s actions, and have made good-faith attempts to ensure the district is spending taxpayer money wisely.” None of the records requested were private or confidential, and thus, should have been readily available to be released to the public, according to the assistant state Ombudsman. Strange how it is also 4 people huh. But as you can see they prevailed
JackBaillargeron 6 months ago
Decision of the Court
On March 31, 2011, The Arizona Court of Appeals filed an Opinion on the court case. They concurred with Judge Mackey's April 15, 2010, decision and sent the case back to his court to assess court and attorney fees for the Goldwater Institute who successfully defended the four women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_Elementary_School_District_v._Warren,_et._al.
Oh notice the appeal, assess court and attorney fees for the Goldwater Institute who successfully defended the four women.
Yet more money to the law firm by the BCWA with these kind of actions that are no win for them.
imjustsayin 6 months ago
It should be obvious that the BCWA letter is out of line (and that the writer should be dismissed for taking this inappropriate action).
NiceTry 6 months ago
That's right, imjustsayin, the writer should be dismissed. And so should Mr. Jannitto. Now.
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