New council's goal - transparency

From the KC Times --

New council's goal transparency
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
By HANNAH CLARKIN
hclarkin@ricentral.com


COVENTRY — The first full-length meeting of the newly-elected Coventry Town Council attracted an attendance in excess of 75 people, all of whom were curious about how the new council would run its meetings.
They found out pretty quickly. In a new part of the agenda, called the President’s Remarks, Council President Kenneth Cloutier (R-Dist. 5) told residents what they could expect: transparency.

“We’re going to make a point of telling you things,” Cloutier said. “Some will be good, some will be bad, but this is your town and you’re paying the bill along with us, so you have the right to know.”

At future meetings, attendees can expect several large changes: meetings will begin with an address by Cloutier and be followed by updates by each council member on their districts and any special projects they are handling. Public Comment will also be allowed on any major resolutions before the council votes and will be restored to the end section of the meeting.
In his remarks, Cloutier addressed the appointment of new town solicitor Pat Rodgers and his firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, which has been frequently questioned since the last meeting.

“It’s not unusual for a new council to engage a new solicitor,” he said. “My two years on the council exposed serious legal issues relating to environment damage at the landfill and numerous lawsuits. The advantage of [this firm] is their size. We can’t afford not to have a big firm.”

Rogers will work specifically for the council, Cloutier said, but as highly-specific issues arise, there will be no need to engage additional law firms to handle them. Other questions regarding the solicitor were referred to a presentation by Rogers later in the meeting.

The second issue of town-wide concern that he has seen, Cloutier said, is the sewer project. “It’s the 900-pound elephant in the room,” he said. “We all know it’s there but we don’t want to deal with it.” This council will deal with it head on, Cloutier said, by correcting the relationship between the sewer commission and the council. Later in the meeting, the council appointed Vice President Raymond Spear (R-Dist. 1) to act as a liaison to the commission.

Executive sessions under the new council will be very different than under the old one, Cloutier said. “I have sat through more executive sessions in the past two years than I want to for the rest of my life,” he said. “We are going to go into executive session as infrequently as possible — but whenever we do the solicitor will explain to the public why we are going in.”

Monday’s executive session, following the meeting, Rodgers said, was a no-action briefing relating to work the new solicitors had done on the landfill problems, an update on the Centre of New England litigation, and an overview of a lawsuit filed against all Rhode Island municipalities by National Grid.

When the time came for public comment, it lasted nearly an hour. Questions ranged from a permanently disabled veteran from District 2 who wanted to know how the town could better help people in his condition, to thanks from residents of Island Drive and along Wood Cove who said they were grateful that the council would be trying to fix their bridge problem.
A good part of the public comment centered on now-familiar issues with the recent appointment of Michael Baird to the Planning Commission and comments about the sewer assessment made by developer Nicholas Cambio.