Article II. Town Council

The Town Council is proposing to change Section 2.06 of Article II to "The Chair, and the Vice Chair when acting as Chair, shall exercise full privileges of Council membership including participation including deliberations on all issues before Council and the right to vote on all issues." Who does this benefit? Yup, Norma Wells and Mike Bowie. This charter change gives these two "full privileges" and the "right to vote on all issues" regardless of any conflict of interest laws they may break in process. "The citizens of Lisbon will not tell us what we can and cannot do once we get this law passed."

The Town Council is adding this to the Rules subsection of the Article: "The term limits for each office shall be administered separately and a term as Vice Chair, shall not preclude the Vice Chair from assuming the Chair." So, Lisbon, when we get rid of Norma Wells, Mike Bowie can slide into the Chairman seat and make sure that his kingdom is protected. Bowie can continue to conduct business the way he has always conducted business in the best interest of himself and his friends. He will ensure that Eldridge remains in his post to see to it that things DO NOT change.

The Town Council has added the verbage that the Town of Lisbon can "convey or lease real or personal property of the Town except tax acquired property." We will cover this subject in much more detail at a later time.

Section 2.08 which talks about their new ordinance change gives them the option to vote once on an ordnance instead of twice and makes the ordnance go into effect sooner than what the original Charter had provided. It also gives them the option of providing a summary of the ordnance if it is 1000 words or more and the option not to have to read the ordnance if two-thirds of the Town Council votes to not have it read at the public hearing. What does this mean? We can improve our chances of getting an ordinance changed by voting on it once, hiding the real text of the ordnance in a summary, and not reading it at a public hearing. "If you people want to question us, we will find a way around that by hiding what we are doing in the context of a public session and we will have the right to do it."

The Town Council wants to change the filling of vacancies in the following way: If you were voted in by a particular voting district and you move to another district within the Town of Lisbon, it will not affect your position on the Town Council. Is someone on the Town Council moving some time soon? If so, this change in the Charter will benefit that particular person.

The Town Council wants to change the forfeiture of office. This is funny. "A councilor may forfeit the office if the Councilor knowingly and willfully violates any express prohibition or other provision of this Charter, of the terms of their oath of office, the Town's Ethics Policy, or any other Town provision relating to the conduct of a Councilor, including violation of confidentiality requirements" and "malfeasance of office, failure to carry out the duties of the office, or misappropriation of funds." This of course does not pertain to Mike Bowie and Fern Larochelle because the Town Council has addressed their conflict of interest issues under other Articles that we have addressed or will be addressed at a later time. Neither of them will have a conflict of interest issue after they get their ordnances passed. But, this does help them to get rid of Dale Crafts and Janet Henry if they even suspect that they have talked to anyone about anything outside of the Town Council. And, we suspect they will consider Janet Henry's refusal to attend Executive Sessions as a failure to carry out the duties of the office. Never mind the real reason she doesn't want to attend them which is because she feels that a lot of the issues discussed in Executive Session should be dealt with in public and ethically disagrees with the behind the scenes practices occuring presently. What they should have said, "Now, if we suspect that any of you Town Council members are not team players, we will have a way to get rid of you and we'll do it within six months of the next election so we can APPOINT someone who supports our agendas."