New City Council votes to ax $500K account ( for WRA)
WOONSOCKET — Six months after losing the budget battle to Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt for lack of sufficient votes to reverse a veto, the City Council flexed some fresh muscle Monday to reclaim a bit of that fiscal turf.
Splitting for the first time since new members were seated in
December, the council voted 5-2 to basically abolish a $500,000 account for the Woonsocket
Redevelopment
Agency, transferring all but
$180,000 into an open-ended contingency fund.
The rest will be used to pay for the acquisition of Aly’s Riverside Pub, which is in line for conversion into a dock for the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council’s riverboat Explorer.
Members of the majority rekindled the original arguments they made against the allotment for the WRA in June as part of a broader effort to trim the mayor’s $144.3 million spending plan for fiscal 2019, saying the need for the funds was insufficiently articulated by the administration.
“This was a major sticking point in the budget,” said Council Vice President Jon Brien. “We had a spirited debate... but interestingly we were never given a reason, a half a million dollars was suddenly being transferred over to the WRA who had never had money appropriated
“I take my role as a city councilman very seriously and we are ultimately the ones that control the purse strings of the city of Woonsocket and I’m not going to abdicate my control to an agency whose members don’t even know why the appropriation was being made.” —Jon Brien
to them as far as I remember.”
Created decades ago to oversee the redevelopment of the Social Flatlands as a new commercial zone, the WRA has become dormant in recent years, Brien and others argued. Even when members of the agency were questioned about the appropriation, they didn’t know what it was for.
In addition to Brien, Councilors James C. Cournoyer, John F. Ward, Denise Sierra and Council President Daniel Gendron voted to transfer the remaining $320,000 in WRA funds into a contingency. On the nay side were Councilors David Soucy and Julia A. Brown, both of whom were elected to the panel for the first time in November.
Soucy argued that pushing the money beyond the reach of the WRA would not only make it logistically clunky for the autonomous agency to act
quickly should an opportunity arise – it was a sign of distrust for the WRA.
“We have faith, I hope, in that organization, that they’re here for the benefit of the city,” Soucy said. “We don’t trust them with the money? Your comments are saying that we don’t have faith in them to make the right decision.”
But Cournoyer said the issue isn’t trust, but accountability. If the WRA or someone else in the administration steps forward to demonstrate why the funds are needed, the council would absolutely consider restoring the funding, he said – the panel just wants to know what the need is before it writes a blank check for half a million dollars to an agency with substantial independence.
“We’re the people that have to look taxpayers in the eye... who are sending you a tax bill,” Cournoyer said. “Ultimately we’re charged with patrolling the funding, the taxes,
etcetera, for the community.” Brien concurred. “When we’re not given the opportunity to know why this appropriation was made...that gives me pause,” she said. “I take my role as a city councilman very seriously and we are ultimately the ones that control the purse strings of the city of Woonsocket and I’m not going to abdicate my control to an agency whose members don’t even know why the appropriation was being made.”
Soucy and Brown both argued in favor of putting off the vote until the council had an opportunity to discuss the appropriation with the administration. Brown seemed to suggest the veterans on the council might have offered that opportunity to the incoming freshmen as a courtesy.
“I’m new, as you know,” she said. “It would have been a little bit more beneficial, maybe, to myself and Councilman Soucy to have a work session.”
Soucy put the proposal in the form a motion to table the issue. But it, too, failed on a 5-2 vote along the same membership lines.
Reached by phone after the meeting, Baldelli-Hunt said she has not ruled out the possibility of vetoing the council’s vote on the WRA funding. Nevertheless, she said that she had discussed the situation with Council President Gendron and seemed optimistic that in the future there would be some advance discussion with the administration before the council moves money from one account to another.
“Before a line item is moved it’s prudent to learn whether there’s been any activity or work put into any potential projects,” said Baldelli-Hunt. “Many of the activities of the redevelopment agency revolve around real estate and often, these negotiations are not disclosed until they are solidified.”