Town Council candidates are motivated by power

Understanding requires knowledge of the foundation. If you want to understand how an airplane flies, you first understand the laws of flight and then flying knowledge falls into place.

If you want to understand how the current Town Council candidates and the Tiverton Taxpayers Association (TTA) candidates will govern Tiverton, you first need to understand the motivational foundation of these two vastly different groups.

The present Town Council candidates are motivated by power and control relying heavily upon uninformed voters. The present Town Council voted to reject, or alter, all 20 charter change ballot questions submitted by the duly-elected Charter Review Commission (CRC), many that moved power from town government to the voter. The Town Council deliberated and voted, in secret, to settle the Four Corners lawsuit, and then sealed the information from the public, relying on citizens being uninformed about town governance and the tax burdens that are implemented.

The TTA town council and budget committee candidates are motivated by the democratic process: smaller government and control of the town budget by the voters of Tiverton. Many were members of the CRC which debated for a year, and in the end, voted to bring charter change questions to the ballot that would move power from town government to the voter.

These included an enhanced Financial Town Referendum (FTR) and moving all casino revenue through the FTR budget process. The CRC also voted to bring additional charter change ballot questions that allowed citizens better insight into government operations and expenditures. The CRC motivation is to ensure that citizens are informed so that all have a better understanding of what their government is doing and what liabilities the government is placing on taxpayers.

Please do not vote for Town Council and Budget Committee candidates based on a name you see on a lawn sign, or the first seven names that appear on the ballot. Take the time to be informed about the candidates, especially the candidates who have a previous voting record in the Town Council or CRC. The continuation of the FTR process, as we know it today, will rely on your informed vote not only for candidates, but also for your vote to reject all of the Town Council sponsored charter changes that will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

I am a TTA endorsed candidate for town council with a challenge to inform voters of the TTA slate of candidates that will allow:

1. Voter control of taxes.

2. The control of the casino gaming revenue through the FTR budget process.

3. Citizen insight into the management of government through transparency and respect.

Richard Rom, Tiverton

The writer is a candidate for Tiverton Town Council


TD Bank has a disregard for humanity

With TD Bank's local grand opening on Oct. 13, I ask the community to consider the effects of TD's investment portfolio; particularly the enthusiastic funding of oil pipelines associated with human rights abuses and violence against American citizens. TD provided significant lines of credit for the Dakota Access Pipeline (by Energy Transfer Partners), Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline expansion (Kinder Morgan), and Line 3 (Enbridge). While these pipelines have already been built and the damage is done (of course, they have experienced spills within the first six months of operation), it was TD who enthusiastically loaned over $1 billion in credit to the companies building these pipelines, while at the same time championing "Renewable Clean Energy" on their website.

If we recall the Dakota Access Pipeline protests of 2016 and 2017, the pipeline threatened the Sioux territory's clean water supply in North Dakota, and sparked peaceful protests by the Sioux Nation, US military veterans and other American citizens. While these protests were peaceful, our citizens and veterans were attacked by militarized police forces, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, hit with concussion grenades, and strip-searched by mercenaries hired by Energy Transfer Partners. TD's funding of this pipeline and subsequent silence regarding this violence suggest that it is not the friendly, approachable and caring bank it claims to be. It has is only been two years since this episode, one in a long history of private interest reigning over public safety and human rights.

I had called TD Bank in 2016 to express my concern with their investment in these pipelines. Their answer: "It's such a small part of our portfolio, it's insignificant.” On the contrary, giving any line of credit to companies that are complicit in this violence is more than significant; it is a disregard for humanity. While TD is far from the only bank that invested in these atrocities, it is TD that has planted itself on Aquidneck Island most recently. I urge you to ask why; who are they serving, and why do we need TD here right now? What business interests are being brought in to warrant an outside bank? And where does this outside bank send its money? Their history makes it clear.

Rosalina Mills, Middletown