Parking signs behind latest rift between mayor, city council

W221S2&.(T A new plan to assist 0arNet STuare restaurants strug gling through the pandemic by e pand ing reserved parNing for taNe out cus tomers is apparently in place, but how it was implemented has some members of the &ity &ouncil fuming.

uring a oom meeting 0onday, &ouncil 3resident an endron sharp ly rebuNed 0ayor isa Baldelli Hunt for launching the plan without the council s input or authori ation, as pro vided in the city charter.

At Baldelli Hunt s reTuest, en dron said, he introduced a resolution on ec. that would have set aside four spaces each for &hristopher s, 5iver )alls and e 2lde (nglish )ish &hips in the city owned lot. But the measure was not passed instead, the council tabled it pending submission of a parNing plan for 0onday s meet ing.

endron was stunned when the agenda for 0onday s meeting was is sued with neither the plan councilors had reTuested nor the resolution after a do en signs reserving the spaces for the restaurants had already been erect ed.

I have a real problem with this, endron said. I will tell you this, the motto it s better to be forgiven than asN for permission does not worN when you re talNing about city govern ment and the city council in this city.

endron said his comments had nothing to do with the merits of the plan, but were aimed at the administra tion s end run around basic operational procedures.

Baldelli Hunt was not logged onto the remote meeting, so endron s cri tiTue went unanswered during the ses sion. 5eached by phone later, however, she chalNed up the missing agenda doc uments to an oversight.

She said she spoNe to &ity Solici tor -ohn eSimone about it and it was her understanding that he was going to draft the necessary papers in time for action at 0onday s meeting.

“$pparently the solicitor didn’t do it, I don’t know why,” the mayor said. “He needs to do it for the ne t meeting.”

eSimone, however, who was participating in the meeting, made no mention of the resolution despite Gendron’s pointed remarks.

The ec. 21 resolution declared that restaurants in 0arket STuare have “very limited” access to parking and, like all restaurants in 5hode Island, haven’t been able to fully open for indoor dining since 0arch due to

C29I -1 . $s a result, they’re relying more on take-out than ever-before to sustain their operations and assigned parking would assist their customers who want their orders togo.

The measure is just the latest effort to prop up the state’s hammered hospitality industry by state and local government since the onset of the pandemic. City officials have previously granted restaurants permission to have outdoor dining, sometimes closing off streets to traffic to make table space, and Gov. Gina 5aimondo has tapped the C$5(S $ct to provide restaurateurs with grants for safety improvements or speciali ed

eTuipment.

Before the resolution was introduced, the mayor said two restaurants in 0arket STuare had asked for assigned parking to support take-out, but the city decided to make the benefit available to all three when it introduced the measure.

:hile the mayor allowed that the failure to add a resolution to the agenda may have been a mistake, she chided Gendron for making too much of the lapse particularly in view of how keenly restaurants have been hurt by the pandemic.

“It’s just a parking sign,” she said. But Gendron wasn’t the only member of the council taken aback by the cavalier approach to procedure.

Councilman 5oger G. -alette Sr. was surprised to learn from Gendron that signs were erected in 0arket STuare before the council had provided the proper legislative support for them.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “This is not permissible. It never has been and it shouldn’t be right now.”

-alette likened the episode to a bad grade on the mayor’s “report card.” He said he hoped “it doesn’t get bad enough...where we’re going to have to do something about it.”