Ironically, that was the tag line Janet Joakim used on her Recall Election signs in 2008, as if the “malcontents” were taking over the town. Joakim was Town Council President at the time, and never missed an opportunity to shove that reality down people’s throats. If ever there was a classic case of an idiotic abuse of power in Barnstable, it had to be when Joakim held the reigns as BTCP.
Verbally and in writing over the years Joakim has advised Barnstable residents not to look at any blogs about the town, except hers, of course, not to sign petitions that she didn’t personally approve, not to believe or join anyone in exercising opinions contrary to the official town spin on any particular issue, and most recently, Janet Joakim actually told readers of the Barnstable Patriot, by way of the column she is offered (not entitled to) as a councilor, NOT TO READ THE BARNSTABLE PATRIOT.
Joakim should try reading books before she burns them.
Janet Joakim played a large role in the highly public and effective bashing six of her fellow councilors, most of whom supported her at the time of her recall, characterizing them as a “gang” who “fired” the town manager.
Joakim should’ve been more careful what she wished for, because now she finds herself in a council minority, to the chagrin of most of the old boy network.
With Chirigotis nailed to the council president’s chair, the old boy minority can still maintain the appearance as having control. For example, despite the failed attempt to eliminate public comment, Chirigotis has pushed it back at least an hour for the past several meetings, and public speakers are almost always limited to two minutes, causing moments of tension because folks are rarely permitted to finish their thoughts.
Understandably, the council wants to move on to doing the business of the town as swiftly as possible, and public comment can be tiresome, especially if it’s the same people saying the same thing meeting after meeting.
What needs to be clarified and repeated as often as possible is that the folks who pay the taxes in this town ARE the town. It’s OUR town. It doesn’t just belong to a group of talking heads or old white men, and we should all have reasonable access to and consideration from every elected and appointed official in our town.
If you were a regular viewer of town council meetings over the past five or so years, you should have noted the evolution of a general contempt of the public from many on the town council. The Stewart’s Creek fiasco was probably the best example of the network in action, although the folks who fought for “creekers” rights ended up getting them a much better deal than they’d initially been dealt – at 11pm – when no one was looking.
Greg Milne was the councilor for Stewart’s Creek at that time, and showed zero compassion for his constituents in Stewart’s Creek because his home was already sewered. Mlne had always represented himself as “a man of the people”, and was the only councilor to hold regular open meetings with those people. Rather than try to reason, or help negotiate a better deal on behalf of his constituents, Milne opposed them every step of the way. For his lousy attitude, he earned a trip to a recall election.
A regular commenter on this blog has regularly suggested that Fred Chirigotis has earned his own trip to a recall election, but I don’t believe a recall would effectively change much of anything outside of creating more contempt from a certain faction of the council towards the general public. Besides, I’d rather let the goat keep chewing away at his own credibility with his sleazy maneuvers and snipey comments.
An organic awakening of a sleepy voting population has evolved since last year’s town hall implosion. This blog has inexplicably doubled in readership over the past six months, and I can only speculate about the cause by looking at various search terms people use to find this site.
Let’s face it, with Klimm gone, and the thugs on the council outnumbered, there is a perception that “the wrong people” might slip into positions of power/influence/control.
Consider the mindset of the e-mail’s author (Janet Joakim) about the town manager:
“Please forward carefully! There is an organized effort to contact councilors and the new councilors are influenced by this group because they don’t know who they are and what they were doing this past year. Please contact councilors and tell them not to spend any money, we have good people, who we know well – right here at home…. this town needs to heal and repair it’s reputation….”
Joakim and her ilk on the council think voters are idiots. I didn’t see any “organized effort”. Folks I spoke to just thought it would be irresponsible not to look around before filling such large shoes. Once he took the money and ran, it became apparent that Klimm was also part of the problem.
Now we’re left with Klimm’s kingdom, and no Klimm. We can’t rebuild or heal if we have the same generals of the oppressing army still operating as if there were no regime change.
Maniacal Joakim went on to warn that: “The same group who was behind, and even including, the councilors who removed John Klimm are now trying to influence the process of hiring a new town manager.”
OH ME WHISKERS! ACTUAL TOWN COUNCILORS WANT TO DO THEIR JOB! SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!
Amazingly John Norman, ever the gentleman, publicly spoke about how well everyone got along with Joakim’s fine leadership on the sub-committee, even after Joakim tried, again, to create all kinds of animosity towards him for his opinions on the matter. (http://barnstablesewers.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/stop-the-madness/)
Part of the reason Joakim has to deal with Norman on the council at all is because of her busybody interference in the Blanchard’s Liquor Store construction, which ultimately caused the walkout of nearly the entire ZBA board about four years ago.
The ONLY reason I’m blogging today is because of Joakim’s interference in my neighborhood issues beginning five years ago. I had no idea how to blog, and didn’t even know what a blog was until that year. When Joakim started bashing my SIX YEAR OLD CHILD on her blog, I learned pretty damn fast.
Apparently she’s still stirring it up somewhere, as I’ve gotten some strange random inquiries about her “history” over the past few days. Has Karma finally come a knockin’ for skanky pants?
Of course, Janet Joakim isn’t the only problem, but she’s the longest sitting councilor on the dias, and she’s beholden to a whole lot of people who’ve covered her through a great many battles.
We’ve finally got some real ladies and gentlemen on the council, and should not have to deal with any more shennanigans from the pastey faced creeps huddled around the goat.
If you see anyone at the post office or the dump circulating petitions to restore public comment to it’s rightful place at the beginning of a meeting, or for instructions to the town manager to order review of the legal department, or any other petition that might restore our town to it’s rightful order, please be kind and sign.
Towns weren’t meant to be litigators.
Taryn Thoman | 
Butch G. | 
The arrest happened at Thursday’s night’s council meeting