Town Council Meeting Update for May 2, 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

RICHMOND -- The bickering between members of the Town Council continued Tuesday at two back-to-back meetings that together, lasted 4 ½ hours. 

In what was probably the most uncomfortable moment of the evening, former council President Nell Carpenter drove to the Town Hall while the meeting was in progress to express her outrage that current council President Mark Trimmer had invited an economic development consultant to make a presentation to the town.

Another awkward moment involved Raymond Pouliot, a council-appointed member of the Economic Development Commission, berating the council for not making additional cuts to the budget and ending his tirade with a warning that the first cuts should be the dismissals of Town Administrator Karen Pinch and Finance Director Laura Kenyon.

The meeting concluded with a proposal from Helen Sheehan

which included a suggestion that department heads consider cancelling their memberships in professional associations.

Solar proposed for Richmond Commons

At a joint meeting of the Town Council and the Planning Board that took place before the regular council meeting, members heard a proposal from BWC Canob Pond LLC for a commercial solar energy facility that would occupy part of the Richmond Commons property, at 116 Kingstown Road.

Joshua Lariscy, Product Development Director for the solar energy developer, also known as BlueWave Solar, presented details of his company’s plans. 

The firm has submitted a pre-application which includes a request to amend the Planned United Development Village District or PUD-VC zone, in which solar development is currently prohibited, to allow the solar project.

A May 2 memo from Town Planner Shaun Lacey explained the purpose of the joint workshop.

“The workshop with the Town Council and the Planning Board allows for a conceptual view in a public setting prior to any decision to formally file an application to amend the Zoning Ordinance,” he wrote.

BlueWave plans to lease up to 65 acres on the East side of the parcel for the solar development. The property is owned by Richmond Realty, which has sold the Western side of the property to the Boston commercial developer, GFI Partners.

In 2021, the previous council denied an application to amend the ordinance. This time, council and board members seemed to be more amenable to a solar project at the site, and discussed the continued viability of the PUD-VC zone which they willconsider changing, possibly to light industrial.

The Town Council meeting

At the second and final public budget hearing, the council approved the proposed 2023-24 budget by a three to two vote with councilors Michael Colasante and Helen Sheehanopposed. The proposed budget is $29.4 million, an increase of just under 5%. There is no property tax increase in the proposed budget.

At the first budget workshop, council members reduced the fund balance from 16% to 15% to trim $250,000 from the spending plan, a cut that Kenyon has warned will have to be repaid next year.

Colasante, Sheehan and others have continued to push for a further reduction of the fund balance to 14%, with Colasantesuggesting at Tuesday’s meeting, on two occasions, that councilors who resisted his proposal were demonstrating a lack of compassion for their fellow residents.

“Not everybody is doing as well as some people that advocate that ‘I don’t care what my taxes are. I like a nice, rural community and the hell with my neighbor.’ Because that’s basically what they’re saying to me,” he said.

Councilor Samantha Wilcox objected.

“Mr. President, nobody is saying that, just for clarification,” she said.

Trimmer responded, 

“We’re discussing a budget,” he said. “We’re not making political points.”

Colasante persisted, attacking Wilcox.

“Councilor Wilcox, you are not around me 24-7. You do not hear what people say to me. Are you a fly on the wall? Then don’t say to me that people haven’t said that,” he said.

Economic Development Commission member Raymond Pouliot demanded that the council make more budget cuts.

Asked by council Vice President Richard Nassaney where the proposed additional cuts should be made, Pouliot made a pointed reference to Pinch and Kenyon.

“With these increases in this budget, there would be two fewer people sitting up there right now, because this is obviously being mismanaged when you continually raise taxes at this rate. So,I’m telling you, you don’t want to know where I would cut,” he said.

Three of the five councilors voted to approve the budget, so it will now go before the voters in a referendum on June 5. (The budget referendum has replaced the Financial Town Meeting.)

The fireworks continue

Jim Damicis, an economic development consultant with the Maine-based firm, Camoin310, was invited by Trimmer to present an overview of what the town might need to consider in order to encourage economic development. 

Damicis, the brother of Planning Board Chairman Philip Damicis, is not bidding for a contract with the town and did not plan to do so, but his presence nevertheless raised some eyebrows.

Economic Development Commission member Louise Dinsmore told the council that the presentation should have been made to the EDC.

“I think the entire EDC should probably review his proposal and his PowerPoint and get back to the council about, you know, the specific parameters that he put in there,” she said. “I have to say that it doesn’t feel right to me that the chairman of the Planning Board is related to this person, if the town is potentially thinking about hiring this firm.”

Former council President Nell Carpenter arrived at the council chambers, saying that she had tried to comment on Zoom but had not been able to log on to the virtual meeting, so she had driven to the Town Hall to express her views in person.

Quoting the town’s ordinances regarding competitive sealed bidding, Carpenter said inviting Damicis to present to the council had given his company an unfair advantage.

“Allowing this company to give a presentation, let alone the mere presence of this company on the agenda, violates our town code of ordinances regarding purchasing, reeks of corruption and favoritism, blatant disregard of our regulatory process.” she said. “… The action by President Trimmer is a perfect of example of why the sunshine laws were created, to insist on transparency of economic and financial government decisions.”

Reached Wednesday, Trimmer said he had no intention of circumventing any town ordinance or hiring Camoin310 and noted that he had felt it necessary to seek advice from a professional because the suggestions presented by the Richmond EDC had lacked substance.

“The EDC gave blind, vague suggestions, based on their limited knowledge, none of whom are EDC professionals, and my feeling is, the next step would be to bring in a professional to fill in the blanks,” he said. 

Trimmer added he was taken aback by the negative reaction to his initiative.

“I know it sounds lame, but my feelings are hurt,” he said. “I worked really, really hard for the last month to try and find someone who had subject matter expertise on this.”

Trimmer ended up pulling his agenda item, to consider hiring an economic development consulting firm, or a lobbyist, and allocating $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money for that purpose.

Trimmer said he had hoped that Colasante would also pull his agenda item which would allocate up to $25,000 of the town’s ARPA funds to an audit of the town’s zoning and land development regulations, but Colasante said he believed the council should pursue the audit.

Trimmer proposed allocating $15,000 to the audit, which the other councilors approved.

A subsequent proposal from Colasante would involve using an additional $125,000 in ARPA funds to hire someone, on a two-year contract, “to direct economic development activities in the Town of Richmond.”

Wilcox said she would rather complete the ordinance audit before hiring anyone.

Lacey told the council that the town’s current infrastructure was a more significant limiting factor than ordinances in attracting new businesses.

“It’s not so much regulations. It’s really not,” he said. “It’s how much infrastructure that you have that can support whatever that developer, that use of that intensity is, right? You have limited water, and you have no sewers and you have 50, 60-year-old state roads that have only been incrementally expanded and improved over time. Those are important factors that really stack the cards against you.”

The council agreed to set aside $135,000 of APRA money “for the consideration of economic development.”

The discussion of economic development continued with Wilcox proposing to use ARPA funds to award grants to new businesses coming to Richmond.

“We see that we have some vacancies, not a lot, but some, and it would be good to incentivize where we have opportunities to incentivize new businesses coming in… to not only help a new business come into an empty building, but help the landlord who may want a tenant,” she said.

Sheehan proposed setting aside $50,000 of ARPA funds for the program. Councilors agreed that the grants would each be $5,000 and Wilcox said she would work on drafting the criteria for the grants.

After the lengthy discussions of hiring consulting firms and individual consultants, the council pivoted to Sheehan’s proposal to institute a one-year moratorium on all new hires as well as new, unbudgeted spending. 

Trimmer said to Sheehan,

“Before we go any further, I want to comment, we’re talking about possibly hiring an economic development person,” he said. “You might want to hold off on this so it will allow us to hire that person.”

Sheehan said she was referring to new employees, not a person hired under contract.

“I’m making a motion that we have no new positions for a period of one year,” she said.

Ellsworth responded,

“That’s controlled by the budget that you just approved,” she told Sheehan. “That’s where the personnel money comes from, and then you approve individual hires also, so you don’t really need to do this, because you’ve got two ways that you can control that.”

“Well,” Sheehan replied, “I’d rather say no in advance than have them here and have to say no.”

Trimmer agreed with Ellsworth that introducing a third way to limit new hires would be unnecessary. Sheehan’s motion was defeated, with Sheehan and Colasante voting in favor and Trimmer, Nassaney and Wilcox opposed.

The final discussion was also contentious. Sheehan proposed asking every department to find new ways to save money.

“There are lots of little ways that can add up,” she said. “There are lots of memberships that people have, professional memberships, in the budget, and maybe people can look at if they need to belong to all those organizations.”

Pinch said for many staff members, such as planner Shaun Lacey and Town Clerk Erin Liese, a membership also served as a professional credential.

“In Shaun’s case, it’s a credential,” she said. “He needs thatcredential to be our planner. A lot of those memberships, that’s the case. Same thing with Erin, right? She’s a certified municipal clerk so she has a membership – that’s what allowed her to be a clerk.”

Liese added that membership in professional groups also served as free networking opportunities.

“It’s a tool that we use as professionals to find better ways to be efficient,” she said. “In most municipal offices, we’re governed by state law, so our hands are tied of what we can and cannot do, but we are more efficient with our resources on a daily basis.”

Trimmer suggested considering financial incentives to reward employees and managers who save the town money, and

Sheehan stressed that she was not being critical of the town staff.

“Look around. See if there is anything that could be done differently and you obviously are doing those things,” she said.