Interesting Projo article:
http://www.projo.com/ri/coventry/content/wb_charter_review_08-15-08_3AB7NJN_v12.3e8587d.html
From the article: "Charter commission member Thaddeus Jendzejec, a Democrat and former council member, said Raptakis served on the town manager search committee and should remember how hard it was to find a candidate with the charter-mandated credentials."
My comments --
1. I think the reason it was hard then and almost impossible now to find qualified Town Manager candidates is that the town has scared them off. After seeing our 19-year TM "retire" and the Town Council hire & fire the next TM in little over one year's time (and then not follow our charter's requirement to search for a replacement), the word is out among the Public Administrator community that Coventry is not a place to build a career, it is inhospitable to TMs, it is to be avoided like the plague.
2. The voters will get a chance to say yes or no to each of the 11 proposed amendments. Please read everything you can about these proposals. Hopefully the town will post the exact wording of each amenment with an explanation for each. Even better, I hope that the town will hold at least one or two public forums on these proposed changes. Remember the bond issue from earlier this year? The town did not do very much to educate the public (except for the efforts of Council members Thompson & Cloutier to get the word out) and the bond issue was voted down. Lesson learned? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
