The Town Attorney (from the firm of Berchem Moses & Devlin) has decided they want a “declaratory judgment” concerning the ability of the citizens to circulate in District 1 a Recall Petition. This is the second time an attorney has tried to stifle the rights of Stratford citizens.
A “declaratory judgment” is when a party petitions the court for a legal determination on an issue for which there are uncertainties. I wonder if the associate doing the research is confused by his findings, so he can’t really, honestly say that the people don’t have the right to recall.
On the Town Attorney side of the coin, the opinion is that Stratford’s recall provision were invalidated when Stratford changed its form of government. They believe that because the old charter was replaced by a new charter, which invalidated those provisions. If they were invalidated, why would they continue to be in the Charter document? To tease the voters with something they could never do?
Flip the coin over and floating around social media (Facebook) and the WWW is information that may indicate something quite different. There is information that because the recall provisions in Stratford were enacted by a Special Act and not Home Rule laws, they did not become invalid.
Also, someone posted a link to an ACLU project “Recall the Rogues” that on first glance seems to stomp out what the TA would like us to believe. But, in keeping with the status quo, the Town Attorneys love spending our hard earned money and refuses to believe anything but what they want it to be. We give them MILLIONS annually. They are another group that tries to rule with intimidation. But wait, don’t we have rights?
For the Stratford Star article: http://www.stratfordstar.com/52396/town-attorney-wants-court-ruling-on-recall-effort/
