Changes to North Kingstown Home Rule Charter on Ballot November 6th

There are several referendums on the November 6th ballot that if approved will change the North Kingstown Charter.  They include the following;

#8 Term Limits: This would make the longest anyone could serve 12 years consecutively.  Is this really necessary?  It applies to an elected position as well as an appointed position.  I would rather have shorter terms for appointed positions to make it easier to replace people that prove to be unacceptable, but not necessarily term limits. Vote NO on this.

#9 Advice and Consent: This would require that all department heads or persons that report directly to the town manager have a majority vote of approval by the town council.  This is a good thing as it makes the elected town council part of the process.  Vote Yes on this.

#10 School Committee: This would reduce the size of the committee from 7 members to 5 members which is not enough to adequately handle all of the work that this committee does.  Changing the size of the committee will not reduce the problem with poor or under-performing members and could ultimately create more problems.  The diverse make up of this committee is essential.  Vote No on this.

#11 Budget Referendum:  This would change the number of voter signatures needed to call for an budget referendum.  The voter list is full of names that have moved, died or haven't voted in years.  This change would only inflate the number of signatures needed to put a budget before the taxpayers for adjustment. This is a move by the town manager to make it harder for informed taxpayers to have a referendum on the budget which is not a good thing. When our town gave up the town financial meeting the current situation was a compromise with the voters.  This should really be left alone.   Vote NO on this.

The town under the current council and manager have failed in almost every area of government and management of our community.  They fail to follow their own policies (no bid contract on the IT Dept. relocation), sue everyone and create horrendous legal bills (school suit $130,000. and firefighters $230,000. with more to come), put all of our lives at risk with the 24 hour firefighter schedule, allow the 413' wind turbine to be built in a residential neighborhood, done nothing to improve the business climate on Post Road and handed out raises every year for the past four years.  Have you received a raise every year for the last four years?Frankly we can't afford their kind of management and government any longer. 

We need a change on November 6th or we will be saddled with two more years of the same.  Vote for a change, vote for Richard Welch and Tracy McCue if you think that it is time for our town to run like a business rather than an out of control social program.  Visit my website at www.richard-welch.net for more information.