Back to the ballot box?
City Council members want to re-write charter to elect school committee members
WOONSOCKET – Members of the City Council say they’ll introduce legislation next month to switch back to the method that had been in place for choosing members of the School Committee prior to 2013 – by holding an election.
After a months-long standoff with Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt over appointing members by consensus, councilors had been saying they were considering the move for some time. Some constituents have appeared at council meetings on multiple occasions encouraging them to do so.
A new kerfuffle over the exclusion of school committee members from Baldelli-Hunt’s negotiating team for collective bargaining talks with the Woonsocket Teachers Guild appears to have tipped them toward an affirmative decision on the issue, however.
“There’s not a single member of the school committee on this negotiating team...
for the life of me I can’t understand why,” City Councilman James Cournoyer said. “Something’s wrong. Something’s broken.”
Addressing the issue during a meeting in Harris Hall this week, Council President Dan Gendron said the switch would require voters’ approval of a referendum question at the polls, but he doesn’t want to wait for the next regularly scheduled election, on Nov. 6. Gendron said he intends to introduce legislation calling for a special election on the issue so voters could take up the question sooner.
After a series of clashes between members of the council and Baldelli-Hunt over the selection of appointees that dates back months, Gendron said he had asked his colleagues to solicit feedback from their constituents on the restoration of an elective school committee. To date, only four of the school committee’s five seats are filled after the council rejected two of the three individuals whose names Baldelli-Hunt had presented for the panel’s affirmation since the tenure of former Committeewoman Susan Pawlina and Vice Chairman Donald Burke expired in mid-December.
“The feedback that I had
has been overwhelmingly one-sided to return to an elected school committee,” said Gendron. “We’ll bring it back and try to right the ship that has been obviously listing.”
Councilors don’t have the power to unilaterally schedule a referendum on bringing back school committee elections. State lawmakers would also have to approve enabling legislation to put the question on the ballot and, once again, amend the City Charter.
Along with Providence, the city operates with one of the state’s two wholly appointive school committees. North Smithfield operates with a seven-member hybrid that includes five who are elected by voters, plus one each chosen by the town manager and the Town Council.
It was a fiscal crisis that erupted within the Woonsocket Education Department around 2010, nearly thrusting the city into bankruptcy, that prompted then-Mayor Leo T. Fontaine to champion the replacement of the elective system with an appointive one. The initiative was based on the premise that the school committee had been an ineffective fiscal watchdog and that an appointive body, tethered to municipal authorities, would have more control to prevent a repeat of the scenario that ultimately prompted the state to put a Budget
Commission in charge of the city’s affairs in 2012.
The same year, residents approved swapping out elections for appointments to fill school committee vacancies, voting 6,098-4,522 in a citywide referendum. The changeover took place the following year.
Under the reform, the mayor has the authority to present the names of prospective appointees, but they can’t be seated on the school committee unless four member of the council also approve.
Until recently, most of the grousing over the system was driven by a rift between the council and Baldelli-Hunt over Burke – the former vice-chairman who became popular with parents, teachers and fellow committee members during his first term. The council lobbied for Baldelli-Hunt to reappoint the career educator, but she refused, saying appointees with a different skill set are needed for the challenges that confront the panel now.
This week, however, the council’s concerns shifted to the makeup of Baldelli-Hunt’s negotiating team.
WTG President Jeff Partington says he’s been involved in collective bargaining three times previously, but this is the first time the city team hasn’t included someone from the school committee.
“I’m surprised,” he said. “I’m just hoping the members they have are as knowledgeable about the issues as the school committee would be.”
The first session took place on Monday in City Hall, said Partington. The purpose was to lay out the ground rules for future talks; the next session is April 3.
City Solicitor John DeSimone previously opined that state law provides for the mayor to select members of the negotiating committee in communities where an appointive school committee is in place.
The city’s negotiating team consists of WED Finance Director Brad Peryea; Schools Supt. Patrick McGee; City Councilman Richard Fagnant; City Controller Cindy Russell; state-appointed fiscal overseer Paul Luba; Baldelli-Hunt; DeSimone; and lawyer John Ruggiero.
Councilors raised questions about Ruggiero’s role, since the school committee already has a legal counsel, Sara A. Rapport, and neither the school committee nor the council has approved his hiring. But DeSimone said Ruggiero will be paid by the hour at a rate that is no more than what Rapport charges.
“There is no extra expense,” DeSimone said. “It’s either the same, or less.”