Salem News article.
Voters oppose Little Neck deal
Salem News article.
Town Meeting Supports Article 15
It was a sea of pink cards last night as Town Meeting voted 500 to 89 in support of the interveners continuing our fight to overturn the agreement to sell Little Neck.
Thank you for your support. We will now be moving full speed ahead toward the goal of being heard by the Supreme Judicial Court. Keep checking this space for updates.
Town Meeting Presentation and Discussion
Since some have asked, you can read the full transcript of Clark Ziegler’s presentation of Article 15 by clicking here.
For those who may have missed the festivities, you can also watch the full presentation and discussion on ICAM by clicking here. Forward the video to about 2:03:30 to get to Article 15.
Motion to Compel Filing of Master Deed
In this motion, the School Committee is asking the court to compel the Feoffees to file the Master Deed that was, according to the Agreement for Judgment, supposed to be filed by May 1st. The filing of the Master Deed is the trigger for the restructuring of the Feoffees outlined in the Trust Administration Order. A hearing on this motion is currently scheduled for June 1st at 9AM in Salem.
Town Meeting is Tuesday, May 8
…at the Performing Arts Center starting at 7:30PM.
Article 15 is the opportunity that citizens have not been given up to this point to make their voices heard on the question of whether the agreement to sell Little Neck is in the best interests of the Town. The motion at Town Meeting is expected to be worded as follows:
Moved that the Town express its disapproval of the December 23, 2011 settlement agreement between the School Committee and the Feoffees of the Grammar School Trust which would allow for the proposed sale of Little Neck and that the Town express its support for a privately-funded appeal by Ipswich citizens seeking to overturn that settlement agreement because it violates the conditions under which William Paine donated the land at Little Neck for the benefit of the Ipswich public schools in his last will and testament dated October 2, 1660.
Voting YES on this article is supportive of the intervener’s attempt to get the issue heard by the Supreme Judicial Court ASAP and disapproves of the agreement to sell Little Neck. Sorry if this is confusing, but because we petitioned for this article to be on the warrant, it must be written such that we are advocating for the YES vote. Think of it this way: in the past, the Town has voted YES to support the fight, and that is what a YES vote will do here as well. One key difference, however, is that the Town is not voting to allocate any money to the fight this time, since it is being privately funded.
In case you lost or never saw the mailer that we sent last week regarding Article 15, you can find it here.
Final Trust Administration Order
This is the final version of the Trust Administration Order, the document that would control the operation of the Feoffees going forward, as agreed to by the School Committee, Feoffees and the AG.
Opposition to Motion to Strike Interveners Notice of Appeal
This is the interveners opposition to the Feoffees motion to strike our appeal of the judgment. The hearing has now been scheduled for May 11, 2012 at 9AM in the Salem Probate Court.
Probate – Interveners – 120425 – Opposition to Motion to Strike
We do not consider this a particularly important hearing so there is no particular need to attend.
Town Meeting Article 15 Public Information Session
We have reserved Room C of the Town Hall on May 2nd at 7:30PM for a public information session regarding Article 15 of the Annual Town Meeting warrant. Town Meeting itself will take place on May 8th at 7:30PM. This article will be a non-binding referendum on the agreement between the Feoffees and the School Committee that would allow the proposed sale of Little Neck.
Interesting History from the Attorney General
We just happened to notice that the Attorney General recently posted a quarterly report from the year 2002 in which she states “the allegation is basically that the feoffees operate for the benefit of the renters rather than for the benefit of the schools, and this appears to be the case.”
History – 20021001 – AG Quarterly Report
Given that this took almost 10 years to get posted on the Attorney General’s site, it should be very interesting to see what gets uncovered over the next 10 years.
Feoffees Motion to Strike Portion of Appeal
In this motion the Feoffees are back asking the Probate Court to deny our appeal of the judgment. There is a hearing currently scheduled for April 27th at 9AM in Salem. This latest move seems unlikely to have any impact on the trajectory of our appeal which has still yet to be heard by a higher court.
Ipswich Citizens for Public Trust 