Businessman Craig Yarde just sent along his reaction to the news that the city may require the chief operating officer petitions to be notarized:
This is absolutely unfair. I have circulators who are on vacation and therefore I will not be able to count hundreds of signatures of citizens who signed. Never mind I have to return forms back to over seventy people and find a way to get a them to see a notary. All this in five days because I have to go to Chicago for a corporate Reliance meeting next week. It's not fair for the city to impose this one week before they are due. They have never did this before. This is a great example of why we need a chief operating officer. I can't believe Mayor Ward would authorize this. Well, that's what you get when you have 21 department heads doing whatever they want because they don't have anyone who's managing them. Who made this call. The citizens should call Mayor Ward and tell him to manage his people and let the citizens of Bristol decide if they want a COO rather than trying to put road blocks.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
32 comments:
So does the petitions need to be notarized or don't they? It sounds from what Ken C said the secretary of the State said no they do not have to be. So does our town charter require petitions to be notarized? I am sure that is very easy to look up. Next, to all the people that are saying that petitions where left unattended..Prove it! Bring your witnesses to town hall with the petition that was left unattended! Give it a break you idiots! This is a done deal and the tax payers will prevail!
talk about sour grapes, ward has been in Maine since Saturday - if yarde took the time to call him, yarde would know that. Besides if the law says that is what the city clerk has to do neither ward, yarde or anyone else can change it.
if you guys collected the names correctly, you wouldn't be scrambling for somebody else's head - grow up.
They were told a few weeks beforehand what they needed to do(witness) the signatures~not just drop them off and leave it for others to take care of~Cockayne apparently said it wouldn't be a Problem and now He,Minor,Yarde,Johnson, etc. are "Whining"~
They would't take "NO" for an Answer(Outvoted)...You wanted this Petition...It Is Your Responsibility...Deal With The Repercussions!
The Taxpayers Will See...
They were told weeks ago they had to witness each signature and could not leave the petitions lying around at stores or wherever. But it was only in the last few days that the organizers learned each petition would also need to be signed by the circulator in the presence of a notary. That's something above and beyond what any of them knew.
Never mind I have to return forms back to over seventy people and find a way to get a them to see a notary.
Give up the drama Craig. All they have to do is bring their petition down to City Hall and sign it while being witnessed by a City Clerk's office employee.
Get over yourself. It's not as big a deal as you think it is.
If you had nothing to hide then you wouldn't be making such a fuss.
I can't believe Mayor Ward would authorize this.
It's not for Ward to authorize. It's completely at the discretion of the City Clerk. You should find out what her job description and legal responsibilities are before you go throwing stones.
She's the most "by the book" employee City Hall has. She's doing the right thing because you and a few of your followers couldn't follow the rules which causes valid questions regarding signature authenticity.
A smart person or persons would have made sure of what was required.
The city (government) is not your own personal business: there is an obligation to the taxpayers!
Mrs. Pac is staright arrow and non-political.
Ms. Pac is a political Hack.
This is disgusting. The Democrats and their supporters (Ms. Hack) are taking a page right out of Hugo Chavez's administration.
The positive side is that this is a great campaign issue for Ken Johnson or whom ever is Ward's opponent in 2009.
Craig
Go buy your own city and run it anyway you want.
I agree....
If the petition organizers had followed the rules to begin with then there wouldn't be any questions regarding the authenticity of petition signatures.
If the petitions were done right in the first place they wouldn't be faced with notary requirements now.
If Pac finds a petition handed in that was marked as left unattended she can have the police investigate and the petition "owner" arrested for fraud.
There were similar investigations during the mall petition. Didn't they learn from that? Or do they think they are exempt from this law?
"If the petition organizers had followed the rules to..."
What rules are those? Ms. Pac seems to make up the rules as she goes along! We now need to be a Notary to pass around a petition?? This is gov't thuggery to the greatest extent I've ever witnessed in Connecticut!
Time for a revolution! JOHNSON IN 2009!
Grammar people, please!!!!!
9:43
Ms. Pac is a professional and that will become clearer in the days to come.
As far as Ken Johnson, if he and his supporters don't know the procedures, what would he have done if he was mayor?
Who would be pulling his strings?
The timing of this new requirement is somewhat questionable. If Ms. Pac is fact only excercising her duties as she understands them, then that is her prerogative. But at the same time, if this additional requirement, in any way, hinders the July 31 deadline, then Ms. Pac should be willing to extend the timeline accordingly. Despite all the comments on this, it would be helpful to hear from her to understand this further.
Mrs Pacs job is not to play cop or detective her job is city clerk. If people are complaining about petitions being left unattended those people should come forward to city hall with the petition that was left unattended. If they can not then this is a closed case.
talk about "my way or the highway", why can't minor, yarde, cockayne and johnson conform to the legal procedures as everyone else has to do?
what makes them believe they deserve to be exceptional?
if they have 4,000 signatures and obtained them in the correct manner, proceed to authenticate them and move on - save your sobbing until after the november election when the voters vote it down - there will be plenty of time to blame someone else for your failures.
Mr Mayor and elected officials that are against this city moving forward, my question to you is HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHTS?
CLIFT, DID YOU HAVE TO SEND A LADY TO DO YOUR DIRTY BUSINESS?
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU. THIS IS THE CITY YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BE PART OF?
REMEMBER THE NEXT TIME ALL OF YOU ELECTED ARE RUNNING FOR OFFICE!!! WE THE VOTERS WILL VOTE YOU OUT!!!!!!
"What rules are those? Ms. Pac seems to make up the rules as she goes along!"
It was the job of the petition organizers to KNOW those rules up, down and sidewise to make sure the job was done right. It was THEIR failure to do so that's throwing a monkey wrench in the works, not Ms. Pac.
"WE THE VOTERS WILL VOTE YOU OUT!!!!!!"
~ Don't bet the farm. We like the politicians who follow the rules and get things done correctly. Seems some of these petition gatherers couldn't find their own butts without a map, a compass and a flashlight. Definitely not the kind of people we want running our city! LOL!!!
My Oh My the Republicans are looking oh so mighty! Right now! I wonder if Craig will change his party come next election? Go GOP! Keep up the good work and pressure you are starting to make people nervous. The next question is why are people so nervous?
"It was THEIR failure to do so that's throwing a monkey wrench in the works, not Ms. Pac.
July 22, 2008 8:58 AM"
The prodceding comment is a total misconception of reality. THERE IS NO RULE THAT STATES THERE NEEDS TO BE A NOTARY. This is Ms Hac's new rule.
TERMINATE HAC NOW!!!
We now need to be a Notary to pass around a petition??
10:39 - get your facts straight. You only need to have a notary witness the petition circulator signing the petition they are taking responsibility for and only if they sign it outside of the City Clerk's office.
craig yarde, we thought that you were above the political sniping but it is obvious that you are under the cockcayne, "woe is me" window - sob, sob, sob.
as for craig minor - he'll probably change his mind six times, depending on if it is to his benefit, before this is all over - probably to the highest bidder.
"TERMINATE HAC NOW!!!"
~ The real "hacks" are the boobs who mucked up the petition with their inadequate, incompetent and irresponsible handling of the task. If anyone should be terminated, it's them, certainly not Ms. Pac. You owe the lady a big apology.
No matter which way this is spun, it appears obvious that there is definitely some interest in seeing this put to ballot.
Too bad that it has to come to this when it could have just been put to ballot from the council.
"it appears obvious that there is definitely some interest in seeing this put to ballot."
~ What's pretty obvious is that there's a certain group of dim-witted politicians who definitely are interested in seeing this put to ballot, but who aren't quite capable of understanding the laws required to accomplish the job.
One thing being ignored here is that 4000 people signed a petition asking for a vote on something. The same thing with the mall petition. What does that say about the voters in this city and their desires? If you are a politician and ignore that fact, then you are making a huge mistake. Only 12000+ people voted in the last election, so ignore that fact at your own political future. Just my read on the true point of the petition process, it is not so much about the issue at hand, but the greater desire for more of a say and some real change in government at all levels.
Some people will sign anything and some people just like the idea that they get to make a choice. It doesn't mean that all 4000 people agree with the COO and I'm sure many won't bother to vote at all. The fact that Yarde and company probably screwed up the whole thing anyway sort of negates the issue. Too bad!
2:28 - you should run for political office, ideally to replace minor, cockayne or johnson - oops, forgot, the only one who doesn't realize that johnson isn't an elected official is johnson - mind-blower or eye-opener?
Yarde: put on your big girl panties and take it like a man.
If Yarde didn't have a lot of money to throw around, would anyone listen to him?
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