Library vote proves the charter still works.
Amesbury News.
Friday, April 29, 2005
 
To the Editor:
 
Many Americans and people around the world know Josiah Bartlett as the President (played by Martin Sheen) on the hit television series "West Wing."
 
The real Josiah Bartlett, however, was an Amesbury native, Delegate to the Continental Congress, the first to vote for the Declaration of Independence and the second to sign the Declaration (after John Hancock).
 
Josiah Bartlett, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of America’s founding fathers created our nation with that vote and that document.  They believed that 
 
"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed … whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"
 
Those words ring as true today as they did on July 4, 1776.
 
Our nation is a nation of laws written to protect the rights and interest of all the people. We protect Freedom of Speech to ensure that all people have the opportunity to be heard – not just those who hold the “majority view”.  Our structures of government are carefully crafted to provide checks and balances, to ensure that the people’s rights are protected, and to prevent the abuse of political powers.  We have such a system of checks and balances, here in Amesbury, as part of our Town Charter. 
 
In 1996, Amesbury’s second Charter Commission proposed that our Town adopt a city form of government, with the executive power centralized in a Mayor – replacing the Board of Selectmen – and the legislative power vested in a nine-member Municipal Council – replacing the 108 member Town Meeting.
 
Many Amesbury residents – including Kate Broughton and David Hildt – were concerned that eliminating Town Meeting would concentrate too much power in too few people, that the residents would lose their ability to participate and their ability to be heard.  The Charter Commission members listened to them and, in response to those concerns, made sure the new Charter included a variety of “Citizens’ Rights”.  The Charter’s preface describes these protections:

"Citizens of Amesbury are provided with broad rights to impact the workings of town government.  An initiative petition procedure allows citizens to recommend the adoption of local laws which, if not enacted by the Municipal Council or the School Committee, would appear on the ballot for approval or rejection by all the voters.  Measures passed by the Municipal Council and School Committee, with some specified exceptions, would be subject to referendum process, similar to that which now exists for certain actions of the town meeting.  A process which allows for the recall of elected officials who have earned dissatisfaction of a majority of citizens is provided.  The right of Free Petition provides and easy access to the Municipal Council, School Committee or any other Board, Committee or Commission for any citizens or group of citizens to voice their concerns.  Additionally, the charter provides for the holding of open meetings of the town and inspection of all public documents."
Today, these Citizens Rights are under attack from the very people who sought them nine years ago. Tens of thousands of our tax dollars have been spent in an effort to re-interpret the Amesbury Charter to try to deny the citizens their rightful opportunities to be heard and participate in their local government.
 
Today, Mayor Hildt and various Council members tell us that Amesbury is “a republic and not a democracy”, that we elect officials to make all our decisions for us, and that ordinary citizens have no right to question those decisions.  They proclaim that they are “trying to protect our form of government” – forgetting the fact that “our form of government” was specifically designed to include Citizens’ Rights.
 
Both the Massachusetts Constitution and the Amesbury Charter guarantee the right of citizens to question the decisions made by their elected officials.  Both the Constitution and the Charter give citizens recourse to “direct democracy” through the initiative petition and referendum processes.
 
But somehow, the act of questioning a single decision made by our elected officials has been viewed – by those same elected officials – as an attack on “our form of government”.
 
So last fall, Mayor Hildt and the Municipal Council chose to ignore a referendum petition that had been circulated, signed and submitted exactly as the Town Charter requires.
 
And so 14 Amesbury residents went to court and asked a judge to enforce their right to referendum.  They didn’t have a lawyer; they didn’t want to sue their Town.  All they wanted was for the referendum petition to be honored, rather than ignored.  All they wanted was for the people of Amesbury to have an opportunity to vote on the Library project bond authorization.  All they wanted was to exercise their rights, guaranteed by the Town Charter.  
 
It took a Court Order to get Amesbury’s elected officials to schedule this referendum election.  In fact, the election wasn’t scheduled until after that Order had been upheld by the Appeals Court.
 
So regardless of how you feel about the Library project – don’t waste your Citizens Rights, don’t take them for granted.  If it wasn’t for those 14 Amesbury residents and those judges, there wouldn’t be an election. 
 
The checks and balances our founders provided for still work.
 
-Tom Iacobucci