Candidates Answer Questions at Forums

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

October 3rd 2024

RICHMOND – Five Town Council candidates and four candidates for the Chariho School Committee answered questions and presented their platforms at two forums on Wednesday evening.

Organized and moderated by the League of Women Voters of South County, the two events, which took place in the Town Council chambers, were attended by about 40 people. By Thursday afternoon, 154 people had either livestreamed the forums or watched them later.

All four School Committee candidates, incumbent Democrats Jessica Purcell and Karen Reynolds and challengers Clay Johnson and Louise Dinsmore, both Republicans, took part in the first forum.

Introduced by Town Administrator Karen Pinch were forum moderators, Christine Martone, the League’s South County Chair, and the Chair of Voter Services, Nina Rossomando.

Each candidate had one minute for an opening statement and another minute for a closing statement. Questions, submitted in advance by Richmond residents, were vetted by the moderators and each candidate was given one minute to answer. Thirty seconds were allotted for additional comments or longer responses and candidates could also choose not to answer questions.

The School Committee Forum

Clay Johnson has served twice on the School Committee, but was forced to vacate his seat in 2023, when the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that Jessica Purcell, who received the second-highest number of votes, should fill the seat.

Johnson and Dinsmore are running on a platform they call “All A’s [sic] for Chariho.” The As stand for: Academic Excellence, Affordability, Accountability and Academic Transparency, which includes the posting of curricula and lesson plans online.

Karen Reynolds has served on the School Committee since 2021. She is a teacher in another school district and the spouse of Town Council candidate Mark Reynolds. They have three children, two of whom are Chariho graduates and one who is still attending school in the district.

Dinsmore is a professional fundraiser who, with Johnson, founded the Forgotten Taxpayers political action Committee.

Purcell filled the School Committee vacancy when Johnson was appointed to fill the seat but later removed, after Purcell went to court and won her case.

The first question was about which three competencies were required for a school committee member.

Johnson answered first.

“Before I served on the School Committee, there was a case where there were two Chariho teachers that actually had intercourse with an underage student,” he said. “I, in my first act as a citizen submitting a records request, requested the signatures of all the teachers that had taken sexual harassment at the school, and it wasn’t available.”

Johnson said he contacted his local School Committee member and the training was introduced.

As a member of the School Committee, Johnson said he introduced a policy prohibiting fraternization between teachers and students.

A core competency, Johnson said, is “getting things done.”

Reynolds, alluding to Johnson’s less-than-perfect School Committee meeting attendance record, said she had made an effort to attend every meeting.

“I take on the tough topics. I’m not afraid of them,” she said. “I’m a willing participant. I’m a willing listener. I listen to all sides, be a critical thinker, a critical decision-maker. And when it comes to the budget, I make decisions based on what’s in the best interests of the students.”

Describing her competencies, Dinsmore said,

“First, you have to be objective. …I’m a results-oriented person. If I don’t deliver for my clients, I don’t get hired. I want to bring that work ethic to the School Committee.”

Purcell said her competencies included a “broad understanding of the district’s strategic vision and mission.”

Purcell also noted that she had an understanding of the district and its schools because she is an involved Chariho parent and  volunteer, who had also made an effort to communicate effectively with the greater Chariho community.

Asked whether they supported the $15 million bond for maintenance and upgrades to the main Chariho campus,

all four candidates said they did support the bond.

Regarding the aging infrastructure of Chariho schools, and following the failure of the $150 million bond for new school buildings, Dinsmore said the committee should allocate additional time on meeting agendas to a “thoughtful discussion” of the budget, including capital improvement.  Chariho Tech, she said, is an asset that should be used to recruit out of district students.

“If we can recruit 20 additional career and tech students from out of district, that can realize up to $400,000 annually that we could perhaps put into capital improvement.”

The candidates also answered questions pertaining to the budget, teacher contracts, book-banning and the mental well-being of students.

The Town Council Forum

The five Republican candidates for Town Council, incumbent Michael Colasante, former council member Nell Carpenter and challengers Jeffrey Dinsmore, Thomas Marron and Roger St. Onge, did not respond to an invitation to participate in the forum. That left four Democrats and one unaffiliated candidate: current Town Council President Mark Trimmer, a former Republican who is now an Independent, incumbent Samantha Wilcox, Dan Madnick, the current Planning Board Vice President, former council Vice President Jim Palmisiano, and Mark Reynolds, who chairs the town’s Board of Tax Assessment Review.

The current council has been rife with disagreements and rivalries, but the five candidates who participated in the forum pointed repeatedly to their willingness to work together.

The first question was about property taxes and how, with 80% of taxes going to the Chariho School District, the candidates would keep Richmond moving forward with what little tax revenue remained.

Reynolds said the focus should be on the things that are most important to residents, such as quality of life.

Road repair, he said, was an important issue.

“That makes a difference in people’s lives, and that’s something that people care about,” he said. “We don’t have garbage pickup in Richmond. We have a transfer station. We need to keep that affordable for residents, so that they can continue to use that resource. We need to find alternative sources of revenue – grants, earmarks from the federal government, other ways that we can fund the things that we want to do on the municipal side of the budget.”

Madnick agreed that members of the Town Council should be looking at spending wisely and increasing revenue.

“We pay quite a bit of money to Rhode Island Resource Recovery per ton [of trash]” he said. “One of the things I’d like to discuss as a Town Council, to validate the merits or the drawbacks of doing this, is to institute a compost program, if we can save money that we’re spending to bring our trash to Johnston and potentially sell the compost and make additional revenue.”

Trimmer said he wanted to preserve the rural character of the town and plan development accordingly. A professional grant writer, he said, working for the town, could focus on finding ways to increase revenue.

“More federal money, more special money, looking in every nook and cranny and every loophole,” he said. “We have a great town staff. Our Town Administrator does a lot of that work now but her job encompasses quite a bit more than that and she can’t dedicate the time that she needs to.”

Wilcox said it was important to support the Chariho schools.

“That’s what keeps our property value up. That’s what keeps our community thriving,” she said.

Wilcox noted that for many, housing in Richmond is not affordable and agreed with Trimmer that a grant writer would benefit the town.

Palmisciano said that attracting more businesses would offset the high property taxes.

“What we should do is find a way to offset the cost of those taxes by creating a business culture and bringing in businesses to offset those taxes,” he said.  

Asked about their ideas for commercial development, all five candidates said the town needed to attract developers, but with certain conditions. Madnick said most of the property suitable for development was owned by just a few landowners. He also noted that most of the town does not have municipal water and there is no municipal sewage service.

Trimmer said he wanted to focus on the town’s central commercial district, which has been a source of consternation for decades.

“We have seen … four businesses closing in just the last month. It really troubles me to see that,” he said.

Wilcox said she had supported the creation of the aquifer protection overlay district, “which protected our water supply and increased our commercial use codes by 27, at least.”

Wilcox also wants to market Richmond as an ecotourism destination, but she said the current council was not capable of discussing large projects.

Palsmisciano said his career in marketing had given him a “keen eye for branding and strategic vision.”

Richmond, Palmisciano said, has the potential to be the “outdoor entertainment capital of Rhode Island.”

Reynolds said he wanted to encourage the revitalization of the Wyoming business district, but developers are currently reluctant to invest in the town, because of the bickering on the Town Council.

“Before someone’s going to invest money in our town, they want to see that the town government and the Town Council functions well, that it functions with integrity, that it functions cooperatively, and developers looking at this last Town Council saw councilors rejecting the recommendations of the town staff on hiring an electrical inspector and hired a political crony instead, who ended up getting terminated,” he said. “We saw a councilor try to skirt the open bidding process. That doesn’t encourage development.”

Responding to a question about the town’s infrastructure, Trimmer said Richmond’s water system gives it an advantage over towns like Hopkinton and Exeter, but its biggest advantage is its convenient location on Route 138 and its proximity to Interstate 95.

Trimmer agreed with other candidates about the damage done by the ongoing squabbles on the current council.

This is my third term,” he said. “I felt like a ringmaster this time or a referee. We had two very disruptive councilors, one specifically that was very disruptive – put us in the news.”

Wilcox said the town needed to invest in its infrastructure and services, and Palmisciano said he would support a long - term strategic infrastructure improvement plan.

Reynolds said that without municipal sewers, the town should focus on attracting light industries, but he agreed that Richmond’s location close to major highways was helpful.

Madnick suggested taking a closer look at both the comprehensive and hazard mitigation plans.

“Without a Town Council that’s willing to be proactive and actually look at the implementation plans of both of those documents that they approved of, we’re not going to have any infrastructure improvements in order to support new businesses in this town,” he said.

Responding to a question about which municipal services they would add or remove, the candidates agreed that a new, accessible senior center is a pressing need.

Reynolds suggested that a transportation service might alleviate the isolation that many residents experience.

Madnick said the transfer station should be open later for people who were at work all day.

Trimmer said he, too, believed public transportation would be helpful. He also called for more recreation areas, such as playgrounds and basketball courts.

On the issue of housing, everyone agreed that more workforce housing was needed. Reynolds said the waiver currently given to developers in lieu of building units for low and moderate income families needed to end. Wilcox said one of the voters she canvassed recently had likened the waiver to a payoff.

Trimmer said housing would be more affordable if state taxes were lower.

All the candidates said they supported the creation of a municipal court, with several saying that residents had already expressed their support in a referendum.

Asked about division on the council and in the community, the candidates agreed that they, as a group, would be able to work together.

“Clearly, folks need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable, and it’s easy if you focus on ideas and focus on reason and not on the person is who has the idea.” Reynolds said.

On the possible elimination of the Richmond Police’s third shift, the candidates agreed that having to wait for state police late at night would not be acceptable. Palmisciano added that reducing police presence on the night shift would not attract development.

Madnick recounted his experience when his wife went into labor and gave birth in their home at 1 a.m.

“The first responder that was there was a Richmond police officer within 15 minutes,” he said. “If we are to get rid of the third shift to save ourselves a couple of dollars, it’s going to harm people in their town. It would have harmed me personally.”

Wilcox said her priorities were to keep the town rural, bring in businesses and conduct council business with “transparency and openness.”

“We’re already committed to the community, we know how the town works and we’ve already worked together,” she said.

“We know each other’s strengths, we know each other’s weaknesses, and we’re going to work together seamlessly on council.”

Trimmer said if elected to a fourth term, he will protect the town staff.

“Opposition has threatened town employees’ jobs,” he said. “They have driven town employees out. It becomes a very toxic environment.”

Madnick said,

“I think that the people that we have here, I’ll echo what they said. This would be a good group to work with – a really good group. We’d be able to have some really good, detailed, thoughtful discussions on some really tough topics,” he said.

Reynolds, a lawyer with his own practice, described himself as a small business owner.

“I understand what it means to keep expenses down,” he said. “I understand employer-employee relationships, and I understand the need for an efficient operation.”

In his closing statement, Palmisciano appealed to undecided voters.

“I want to say this to those who are still undecided,” he said. “I urge you to consider supporting me for Town Council as someone who will be a dedicated, hard-working, common sense problem solver for this town.”

In a 2023 letter to the editor about the Chariho School Committee, former Town Council President B. Joseph Reddish, a Democrat, pointed out that by far, the majority of voters in Richmond are unaffiliated.

The latest voter numbers on the Secretary of State website show that trend continuing. In Richmond, there are 1,549 registered Democrats, 1,364 Republicans, and 3,627, or 55% unaffiliated.

With the minds of so many voters already made up, it is those unaffiliated and perhaps, undecided voters that the candidates are determined to reach.