City Council to hold special meeting this Tuesday night
Little light shed on agenda
WOONSOCKET — The City Council will hold a special meeting this Tuesday night to consider staffing concerns in the City Clerk’s Office and other matters, such as a listed discussion of “information requests and communications” from the City Council.
Council President Daniel Gendron and Council Vice President Jon Brien could not be reached for comment on the special meeting. The session does not include a period of public comment.
“I do think there should be a code of conduct rule based on how council members deal with each other, and directors, or anybody. There is certainly a way to have decorum on the council.” — Councilman Christopher Beauchamp
The agenda also includes a request by Vicente Morales to use Cold Spring Park on Sept. 9 with a rain date of Sept. 16, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., for a community field day event.
It could not be determined if the council’s information requests and communications discussion would have any bearing on the recent verbal exchanges between some members of the council and the zoning board.
When contacted on Friday, Councilman Christopher Beauchamp said he did not have any additional information on the agenda.
The staffing issue with the city clerk’s department could
pertain to a request submitted earlier by City Clerk Christina Harmon-Duarte for an office aide given the current work load she is facing, Beauchamp said.
The problem could be related to the amount of information being requested of the clerk, he added. “It is a combination of everybody trying to get information and what channels they get information from, because it has been all over the place,” he said.
As for whether the panel might discuss the manner in which discussions are held by the council, Beauchamp said he did not know whether that would come up.
“I do think there should be a code of conduct rule based on how council members deal with each other, and directors, or anybody,” he said.
“There is certainly a way to have decorum on the council,” he added, while noting that rule of order has not necessarily been followed by some members more recently.
Beauchamp said it could be that the code of conduct is already stated in the council’s rules and that may be discussed by the panel at some point if it not considered a part of the discussion planned on Tuesday beginning at 6:15 p.m. in Harris Hall.