Council Approves Water Fee Increase

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
March 8th 2024

RICHMOND – During a public hearing during Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, council members approved amendments to the water system ordinance that will raise the fees for the 294 residents whose homes are connected to the town water line.

Finance Director Laura Kenyon explained the proposed revisions, which will add a capital improvement charge of $80 per year, or $20 per quarter to water bills, are necessary in order to pay back the $300,000 bond for water system improvements that voters approved at the 2021 Financial Town Meeting.

Reading the revised ordinance, Kenyon said,

“Each customer shall pay a capital improvement charge of $80 per year, beginning on July 1 2024 and continuing each year until the $300,000 revenue bond to be issued in 2024 is paid in full,” she said. “One quarter of the annual fee will be added to each quarterly water bill. The final year’s billing shall be adjusted to account for payment in full of the bond. The fee shall be assessed against each existing customer as of July 1, 2024 and each new customer added thereafter.”

The council, in a unanimous vote, accepted the amendments.

Municipal Court 

Previous Town Councils have considered a municipal court for Richmond, similar to the municipal courts in Hopkinton and Charlestown. The latest proposal was introduced by council member Samantha Wilcox, who cited an Aug. 2022 memorandum on the subject written by former Town Planner, Shaun Lacey.

“This was something that was recommended by staff, looked into by a prior council,” she said. “They ended up deciding that coming so close to an election, they would let us decide, but timing is such that it’s coming to the table now.”

Councilor Helen Sheehan said that she recalled that the previous Town Solicitor, Karen Ellsworth, had said that a municipal court would not generate any additional income. She asked what the advantage of the town having its own court might be.

Town Council President Mark Trimmer said when he served on a previous council, members voted against a municipal court.

“I know back in 2018, when I was on the council, we voted it down because we felt it would just add more work for certain town employees,” he said.

Wilcox said the current town staff supported a municipal court.

“It’s not necessarily a money-maker, but it helps us enforce the rules that we already have,” she said.

Town Solicitor Christopher Zangari said a municipal court would likely be revenue neutral, but would have several advantages.

“Having a municipal court is really convenient for the citizens,” he said. “That’s on the [traffic] ticket side. On the housing side, there’s a bigger advantage. There’s a savings, in that you have local access to a local municipal court judge. You don’t have a filing fee of $187 in Superior Court. You don’t have service by a constable…You don’t have to pay me to go to Washington County Superior Court, and I wait, and housing code violations in Superior Court, obviously they get a fair shake, but you’re lower on the list. If there’s someone coming in from the ACI, they come first.”

Zangari also noted that a municipal court would give the town more control over things that are important to residents.

“You can address that trash in a neighbor’s yard or the three unregistered vehicles when you’re only allowed to have two, … and you can increase, potentially, the quality of life that you have by enforcing your ordinances more robustly,” he said.

Councilor Michael Colasante said he was concerned that a municipal court might open the door to traffic ticket quotas.

“As the solicitor said, the generating part is going to be the police end of it, and again, I don’t want to get a phone call, Chief, I know you won’t do this, but you know, the tongue in cheek is, ‘guys, we gotta tag people because revenue is down and we’re in the red this month and we gotta generate some tickets,’” he said.

“We enforce the law,” Police Chief Elwood Johnson responded. “The officers, I’m not telling these guys when to write a ticket.”

Colasante said three members of his family were in law enforcement.

“I’m just saying, just to protect you, like I would protect my relatives, all right? who are in law enforcement, that, you know, you don’t need that extra perception of, you know, having to cover the force because last month we were in the black, so this month, we have to be in the red kind of deal, and then they see a spike in ticket-generating revenue.”

Johnson replied,

“I appreciate what you’re saying and frankly, I have complete faith in our personnel to uphold the law, do the right thing and not try to fill coffers with the idea of generating more revenue by writing more tickets. It’s not what I see happening.”

Council Vice President Richard Nassaney said he had observed police officers using their discretion in issuing traffic tickets, and he described the implication that they might increase ticketing as insulting.

“These guys are professional,” he said. “They are not here to make the budget. They’re there to protect and they do an amazing job, and to say anything otherwise, quite honestly, is an insult to our officers that protect us.”

Wilcox made a motion, which the council approved, to ask Kenyon to prepare a staff report on the financial costs and personnel that would be involved if the town were to have a municipal court.

Reports

Johnson recounted a recent DUI arrest following a car crash on Feb. 10 near Richmond Elementary School.

“A westbound vehicle, coming down the hill, heading towards that curve that bears right, failed to negotiate that curve,” Johnson said. “A vehicle traveling eastbound, a woman from West Warwick in a much smaller vehicle, he was in a Ford Explorer, she was in a small sedan, I think it was a Saturn, he crosses the double yellow lines and hits her head-on.”

The crash did not result in serious injuries, but the officer at the scene determined that the operator of the SUV, who admitted to taking his eyes off the road to look at his phone, was intoxicated, having failed field sobriety tests administered at the scene.

 Town Administrator Karen Pinch requested and received approval from the council to promote Department of Public Works employee Robert Doucette to the position of Superintendent. Doucette replaces Gary Robar, who was recently named Director of the department.

Pinch also asked the council to approve $25,000 in American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds for a new Town Hall Sign. The sign, made of wood, will include an LED display of town events, replacing the sandwich board the town currently uses.

The council also approved the lowest of four bids to purchase a new truck for the public works department. The winning bid, for $206, 551, was submitted by Freightliner of Hartford Inc.