Council tables Town Administrator review

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
September 9th 2023

RICHMOND – Town Council member Michael Colasante continued his effort to question the job performance of Town Administrator Karen Pinch at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Pinch’s annual performance review takes place in December, but Colasante added a performance review to Tuesday’s Town Council meeting agenda.

The discussion took place in Executive Session, but no action was taken. Council Vice President Richard Nassaney recused himself from the discussion, because it involved Electrical Inspector Jeffrey Vaillancourt’s work at the Washington County Fair, where Nassaney has a booth to sell his hot sauce.

Vaillancourt has been observed doing electrical work for Colasante, but despite that business relationship, Colasante did not recuse from the Pinch discussion.

Reached before the council meeting took place, Town Council President Mark Trimmer described Colasante’s effort as retaliation on behalf of Vaillancourt. While not his immediate supervisor, Pinch is ultimately responsible for all employees.

“This retribution/harassment goes right over the top,” Trimmer said. “It is highly unusual for a councilor to request a performance review based on retribution for his friend.”

Vaillancourt, who was hired in March, has been admonished for his comportment with local business owners, prompting several complaints to the town. He received an extension of his probation period after the town received additional complaints about his behavior from officials at the Washington County Fair.

The council discussed the situation in executive session, but did not take any action.

Hiring/Firing Authority

Colasante requested another agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting which stated that council members should be involved in all hiring decisions.

The agenda item read:  

“Request of Councilor Colasante for the Discussion and Consideration of creating a policy for the Town Council to be involved in all new hires including receiving all applications, resumes, and to be involved in the interview process if they so choose.”

However, the authority of the Town Administrator was confirmed in Nov. 2022, when residents voted on a referendum question pertaining to administrator’s role, as defined in the Home Rule Charter.

By a margin of 2,389 to 1,049, voters approved a measure that prohibits members of the Town Council from influencing hiring decisions.

Colasante’s proposal did not sit well with one resident, Christopher Kona, who, in an Aug. 19 email to the council, published with the council agenda, reminded members of the referendum vote.

Kona wrote,

“The opinion of the Richmond voters on the role of the Town Council in hiring is objectively documented from the November 2022 election, during which 69.4% of voters responded ‘yes’ to the question:

‘Shall the Charter be amended to prohibit Town Council members from attempting to influence the Town Manager’s decisions on hiring, promotion, and removal of Town employees?’

Kona’s letter also states,

“During the Aug. 15 meeting, Councilor [Helen] Sheehan remarked that Richmond did not vote her to Town Council to refrain from influencing hiring. This is factually incorrect – the residents of Richmond did vote for her and other council members to office with the expectation that they should not influence town hiring and firing.”

After a lengthy discussion, which included input from audience members, the council voted to continue the matter until Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth had prepared a new draft of the proposed policy.

Notices to Landowners

Colasante proposed that the town “send notice to landowners of any potential changes discussed regarding regulations, ordinances, regarding land use at the beginning of the discussion phase and throughout the process in order to solicit their participation and input. This would apply to the Town Council, Town Planner, Planning Board or any other town official or body that has authority to begin such a process.”

Colasante stated that he had been in contact with several large commercial landowners who had no idea that the town was planning to amend the “aquifer protection overlay district” ordinance, or APOD.

“These large landowners, that a lot of people around the state have said were waiting with baited breath, had no idea that something was going on with the APOD,” he said.

Trimmer interrupted Colasante, saying that he had had conversations with several developers about the ordinance amendments.

Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth pointed out that agendas were already posted publicly in advance of meetings, as required by law. She also noted that notifying every landowner by registered mail, as required by law, would be very costly.

“Every time one of those is first discussed, that individual notice be given to every property owner, I would say that you would probably have to add $60,000 to the budget,” she said. “…You would have to continually send notices all year, to probably half of the town, and that would require another clerical employee.”

Council members agreed to ask the Economic Development Commission to prepare a list of the town’s large developers and work with them to they are informed of proposed changes that might impact their businesses.

Motocross Track

At a public hearing that took place earlier in the evening, council members approved proposed comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance amendments to allow a motocross track on Buttonwoods Road.

The 14-acre property owned by Jordan Carlson, is located in an R-2 or residential district, which Carlson, represented by attorney John Mancini, sought to change to a Flex Tech zone. The council has received a positive recommendation from the Planning Board, which heard the application in August.

The council approval paves the way for Carlson to go through the development plan review process, however, in order to complete the review, he will have to obtain a Rhode Island Pollution Discharge Elimination System, or RIPDES permit from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. RIPDES permits are required for projects that are larger than five acres.

Carlson has already been cited by DEM for altering freshwater wetlands on his property and on Aug. 9, 2022, the agency issued a cease-and-desist order.

The Town of Richmond has also filed a complaint in Rhode Island Superior Court for zoning violations.

Asked at Tuesday’s hearing about the remediation he will be required to do in order to receive his RIPDES permit, Carlson said,

“As far as DEM goes, we’ve actually not been served with any formal violations at all,” he said. “It’s been over a year and a half since I’ve had any contact with DEM, and the question at issue would be a boundary issue.”

Ellsworth disagreed.

“I believe that there is a violation,” she said. “The DEM has not taken formal legal action against Mr. Carlson. I suspect that’s probably because they’re short-handed, but they went to Superior Court and got a search warrant to search the property to determine the extent of the wetlands violations and they filed a return on that warrant that indicated that there were extensive wetlands violations.”

Mancini reminded the council that wetlands violations were not on the meeting agenda.

“What we’re asking is simply for the town to look at your land use map, your comprehensive plan, the Planning Board recommendation and the zone change, and you make the determination as to whether or not all those things are aligned, according to the request,” he said. “The request is simply to do that, R-2 to FT. It’s not to use this as a way to circumvent DEM regulations.”

After a brief discussion about noise generated by the track and the addition of a helicopter landing pad to transport injured riders, council members approved the comprehensive plan and zoning amendments.