Council Behavior, Tax Rate Lead Meeting Agenda

Richmond Town Council Meeting for August 15th 2023
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

August 16th, 2023

RICHMOND – Town Council members discussed a letter, at Tuesday’s meeting, from former council member and Democratic Town Committee Chairman B. Joseph Reddish admonishing councilor Michael Colasante for his behavior and urging council President Mark Trimmer to exert more control over council members.

In his letter dated August 4, 2023, Reddish wrote,

“It was disappointing to witness Mr. Colasante’s disrespectful demeanor of shouting on Friday, July 21, 2023.”

Reddish was referring to the special council meeting to swear in Chariho School Committee member Jessica Purcell and approve the hiring of Town Planner, Talia Jalette.

At that meeting, Colasante, the only council member to oppose Jalette’s hiring because the council had not been involved in the interview process, compared the town to “the ship is going to rocks along the shore, because, we’re the number two tax town in the state and it’s the policies of this town that are bringing that ship to rocks.”

Colasante also stated that he believed Jalette’s hiring had been “ a done deal, behind the scenes as usual.”

Reddish, in his letter, requested that council members’ conduct be added as a discission item to Tuesday’s council agenda.

“The Town Council President’s responsibility is to manage meetings and manage behaviors,” the letter states. “President Trimmer, we request that you place an item on the agenda that would begin a public discussion that would address and set the expectations of all Town Councilors [sic] behavior in meetings.”

Colasante asked to respond to the letter and read a prepared statement, in which he was unrepentant and repeated his commitment to easing the burden on the town’s taxpayers.

“I will not back down from pushing back against high taxes and doing all I can to promote fiscal conservatism,” he said. “What is in the best interests of our town and its residents is that we on this council try to work together on issues.”

Trimmer responded,

“…the letter refers to conduct which makes it difficult to work together, so that’s what I was hoping would be addressed, and it wasn’t” he said. “It is a matter of shouting out, interrupting, making inflammatory statements that were matters of concern. When you say the town’s heading for the rocks, do you know how many phone calls I get on that? I mean, you just can’t be making those kinds of statements when there’s no basis in fact for it, and it’s inflammatory, it damages our ability to entice developers into the town and it damages our ability to work as a council.”

Councilor Helen Sheehan came to Colasante’s defense, as did Kathryn Colasante, who frequently defends her husband’s actions.

Councilor Samantha Wilcox described Colasante’s conduct as “aggressive” and “passive-aggressive.”

Councilor Vice President Richard Nassaney added,

“…things can move forward, as long as the vision is for the town and the people of the town, not for ideology, not for partisan, not for one’s personal, or one group of people’s ideas or goals,” he said. “It has to be for the entire town.”

Trimmer asked that Reddish’s letter be filed.

The Finance Director Pushes Back

In response to Colasante’s frequent assertion that Richmond has the second-highest tax burden in the state, Finance Director Laura Kenyon produced figures showing Richmond’s taxes in a more favorable light.

The town’s residential tax rate in Fiscal Year 2023, Kenyon noted, is the seventh-highest in Rhode Island.

“We were 11th in Fiscal Year ’22, 7th in ’23 and now we also called every city and town for the ’23-’24 and we’re 17th,” she said. “…The other issue is the tax levy over the last six years, and from Fiscal Year ’18 to ’24, the total tax levy is up 9% for those six years. I just wanted to also say that when you’re using metrics of states and cities and towns, you have to understand the calculation and the discrepancies that could happen.”

Colasante countered that the “tax burden” as he described it, was, in fact, the second-highest in the state and that municipal spending had increased 38% from 2018 to 2024.

Kenyon pointed out that Colasante’s calculation of the tax burden was based on a median home value of $319,000 when the median in Richmond is lower - $287,000.

Trimmer pointed out that 80% of the town’s budget went to the Chariho Regional School District, and therefore, largely out of the town’s control.

Other Business

The council approved an amendment to the Rules of Procedure, which would require council meetings to end at 9 p.m. unless a majority of council members vote to extend the meeting.

There was a longer discussion of whether the sealed minutes and materials of executive sessions should remain in electronic form after council members have reviewed them.

Colasante has stated that he wants hard copies of executive session minutes and cited the Chariho School Committee as an example of a public body that receives hard copies of executive minutes in their packets.

“Even the fact that we go into executive session and we come out and we seal the executive session minutes, we can still tell somebody exactly what happened in executive session, so whether or not we get a hard copy of the minutes or not, it doesn’t matter, because it stays within this body,” he said.

After hearing an explanation of the evolution of the current policy from Town Clerk Erin Liese, the council, with Sheehan and Colasante opposed, voted to retain the current policy of sealing the executive session minutes.

Attorney’s fees

Following the council’s appointment of Clay Johnson to the School Committee and the subsequent challenge by Jessica Purcell, which was upheld by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, the town must pay the legal fee of attorney Joseph Larisa, who unsuccessfully defended Johnson and the town.

The fee is $22,240.

Wilcox pointed out that Larisa had charged for some work that had not been authorized by the council and that paying for that work would constitute a dangerous precedent.

The council voted to pay Larisa, with Wilcox and Nassaney opposed.

The town may also be required to pay the legal fees of Purcell’s attorney, Jeffrey Levy. Levy’s fee, including the court filing fee and printing costs, is $26,846. Larisa has filed an objection on behalf of the town, but there has been no decision on Purcell’s petition.

(The move by three councilors to appoint Johnson rather than Purcell, who received the next highest number of votes, will end up costing the very taxpayers they have vowed to protect, because taxpayers will foot the bill for that politically-motivated effort.)

Other Business

The discussion of the council’s authority over the hiring, firing and promotions of staff continued, with a debate over what the town charter requires.

Pointing to what he described as “conflicting language” in the charter, Colasante said the council, not the Town Administrator, should have authority over hiring and firing.

Sheehan suggested that council members should be present during the final interviews of candidates.

Wilcox said she would ask Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth to draft an ordinance amendment, and Ellsworth offered to draft an amendment that would establish a hiring and firing process.