Council action should be nullified

Posted

Open letter to Attorney General Peter Kilmartin

I was present at yesterday’s Johnston meeting at the Johnston Municipal Court to vote on the sale of water to Invenergy January 10, 2017 at 7 p.m.

Many residents of Johnston and others protesting the building of the power plant in Burrillville got to the meeting by 6 p.m. – it was to start at 7 p.m. – but were unable to enter because the 87-seat maximum capacity had been reached. The mostly all-male Union members, most of whom were not Johnston residents, had apparently been instructed to get there early enough to guarantee them seats. Johnston residents, Burrillville and area residents and others fighting the building of the fracked gas power plant for over a year were not afforded the same courtesy.

In the hallway were about 40 power plant protesters who were constantly harangued about their blocking the hallway and door, were constantly shoved against the wall, and threatened with being expelled if they did not stop wandering into any clear spaces. Space was very tight.

Outside were another 30 protesters and residents or so, which Channel 12 recorded as being unable to enter.

There was also an elderly (she’d hate to have me describe her that way! She is a strong fighter in her late 70s, I believe.) nun who is part of the famous “Nuns on the Bus.” She is expecting to have surgery on her feet soon but so dedicated is she to fighting the power plant that she was also there last night, forced to stand the entire time she was there – over an hour. She was in agony and not a policeman or official or union (thug) offered her a seat. Instead, upon exiting after their “win,” the mostly male, non-Johnston resident group of union members (brutish thugs) made lewd, obscene comments and gestures to the mostly female protest crowd.

The protesters in the hall chanted “Change the venue!” to indicate their knowledge of the open meeting rule – that the venue must be changed to a space large enough to hold all participants if all meeting participants do not fit into the meeting space. There was a school close by that would have held everyone, but no attempt to accommodate everyone present was made. Not allowing all present participants into the meeting space is a known violation of the open meeting rule.

We believe that the decision made last night should be thrown out due to violations and the contemptible behaviors exhibited there. This was a totally corrupt handling of the attempt to sell Johnston water to Invenergy without the knowledge and participation of the residents. It was bullying, pure and simple. This was an example of a totally non-democratic corruption of what should have been a civilized, participatory, informed vote on an issue that concerns Johnston residents and all concerned residents of Rhode Island.

Instead, it was closed door, in violation of meeting rules, bullying, corrupt, completely disrespectful in any way you want (you get the picture) and we WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS.

The meeting was extremely short – about 15 minutes – and ended with vociferous cheers, fist pumping and back slapping by the union member plants. We learned that a decision was made to sell Johnston water to Invenergy.

We, taxpaying, law-abiding citizens are fighting for the right to clean air, water, preservation of natural spaces (the Historic Blackstone River Corridor, for Pete’s sake), a move to renewable, alternative energy, job creation doing those kinds of projects, to live safely and healthfully, not locking us dangerously into decades of fossil fuel dependency with the attendant risks to climate and environment.

Jessica Stensrud

Pawtucket

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