Richmond Town Council Meeting Update for February 7th 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
February 8th 2023

RICHMOND – Once again, angry residents packed the Town Council chambers and forced the adjournment of the Tuesday February 7th council meeting. With more than 60 people packing a room with a maximum capacity of 52, the council was required to adjourn the meeting, as it had adjourned the Jan. 17 council meeting - for the same reason.

It is likely that opponents of the council had planned to pack the meeting, however, reached Wednesday, council President Mark Trimmer said he believed that many of the residents in the council chambers had come to support Jordan Carlson, the owner of a dirt bike track who is involved in a legal dispute with the town. Carlson was on the agenda for the executive session which follows the council meeting but is not open to the public.

“The Democrats that packed in early on to express their anger and so on, in a rather uncivil fashion, they didn’t themselves present enough to overwhelm the system, but unfortunately, when the dirt bikers arrived, we had to shut things down,” he said.

A new council meeting has been scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. Additional space will be available upstairs in the Town Hall to accommodate an overflow crowd, should there be one.

The Residents Vent 

A couple of agenda items, such as a public hearing on changes to the ordinance pertaining to the Emergency Management Director were heard. However, the remainder of the meeting, which ended after just 35 minutes as more residents arrived, consisted of the public forum.

Some residents remain angry about the council’s failure to reappoint Nancy Hess to the Planning Board. Others are angry about the council’s appointment of Clay Johnson, rather than Jessica Purcell, to the Chariho School Committee.

Tensions were further inflamed when Trimmer, with councilors Michael Colasante and Helen Sheehan, erected a large sign next to the town’s busiest road, calling themselves the “Gang of Three” and reminding residents that they had promised that “it wasn’t going to be business as usual.”

Trimmer said the sign, installed on Jan. 28 next to a package store in Wyoming, was in retaliation for a letter to the editor by Kristen Chambers, in which she called the three councilors “the Gang of Three,” invoking China’s infamous “Gang of Four.”

“Slanderous comments, calling people criminals, thugs, and comparing them to the Gang of Four, that were responsible for 10 million deaths, isn’t the way you get compromise,” he said.

Contacted Wednesday, Chambers said,

“I’m like ‘wait a minute. What are they calling me out for? They’re the ones who took the name and ran with it, on a giant sign,’ and they also tied it in with that I’m on the Richmond Democratic Town Committee, which I already in a different letter said ‘I’m not writing for the Democratic Town Committee.’ So, I felt like I just had to get up and say, you know, ‘I wrote the letter. I wrote it on my own behalf, and you’re the ones who used it on your sign.’”

Town officials, including zoning official Josh Jordan, received complaints about the sign, which, as it turned out, had been installed without the necessary permit. It was subsequently removed, by Trimmer and Colasante, about a week later, on Feb. 5.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, resident Joyce Flanagan derided the three councilors for failing to obtain a permit before they put up the sign.

“You paid for and condoned the installation of the large sign in Wyoming,” she said. “We all know it’s not there anymore. Here is my question: are you really so uninformed and uninterested in following procedures that you never applied for a sign permit?”

Trimmer replied that he had not personally installed the sign and had not applied for a permit.

Former council President and Democratic Town Committee Chair, Joseph Reddish, reminded council members that they had sworn to represent the interests of all the members of the community.

“No matter how pissed off you are, how you feel you’ve been attacked, [you] always have to address the individuals behind me and the ones that are not in this room right now with respect,” he said. “Each of you are elected officials. You’re to be at a higher standard. So, I encourage you, step back, think about what you’re saying. You can’t be defensive.”

Trimmer said later that Reddish’s comments had struck a chord with him.

“His comments were sobering, and I hope that the Democrats, under the party he is chairman of, listen to those words and temper their words as well,” he said.

The Hiring of Joseph Larisa

Attorney Mark Reynolds, who chairs the town’s Board of Tax Assessment Review and ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in the last election, brought up the issue of the council’s approval, at a special council meeting on Jan. 25, of the hiring of attorney Joseph Larisa to represent the town in the Rhode Island Supreme Court case involving Jessica Purcell.

“The terms of the contract with that attorney were not disclosed at that meeting and I’d like to know what the terms of that contract with attorney Larisa are,” Reynolds said.

Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth said Larisa would be charging the town an hourly rate of $225. Reynolds asked how Larisa’s rate compared to those charged by other outside attorneys, and

Ellsworth said Larisa would be paid more than outside attorneys hired to represent the town in tax appeals cases, and also considerably more than the rate she herself was paid.

“It’s certainly higher than the hourly rate that I get,” she said.

“How much higher?” Reynolds asked.

“I get $120 an hour,” Ellsworth said.

Reynolds also noted that the council had not issued a request for proposals for the position, but had simply hired Larisa, without public scrutiny, at the higher hourly rate.

Thursday’s Meeting

Council Vice President Richard Nassaney did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, but councilor Samantha Wilcox said on Wednesday that she hoped the council would be able to get its work done when it meets again on Thursday.

“I think people are upset about different things, and they’re all coming together for that reason,” she said.

Trimmer said he had seen indications that residents were prepared to put their politics aside and work together.

“I had three Democrats who were at the meeting complaining last night contact me within the last 12 hours and we had civil, reasonable, intelligent, adult conversations that in no way impugned anybody,” he said. “It’s absolutely possible, but the people throwing the rocks and telling us not to throw rocks have got to stop throwing the rocks.”