Portsmouth shares legislative wish list with local lawmakers

Health and safety, local control over contracts among concerns

By Jim McGaw
Posted 1/9/18

With three state lawmakers sitting before them, members of the School Committee and Town Council Monday shared their wish lists of legislative priorities going forward.

Among the top items on …

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Portsmouth shares legislative wish list with local lawmakers

Health and safety, local control over contracts among concerns

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — votWith three state lawmakers sitting before them, members of the School Committee and Town Council Monday shared their wish lists of legislative priorities going forward.

Among the top items on those lists were safer roads, the end of eminent domain, a better state budget process, additional support for drug-prevention efforts, more protection of local citizens’ health and welfare and the elimination of the evergreen contract bill that was vetoed by the governor last year. 

All 14 members of the council and School Committee were present for the joint meeting that preceded Monday’s Town Council meeting. The three local legislators on hand were Sen. James Seveney, Rep. Kenneth Mendonca and Rep. John Edwards. Reps. Dennis Canario and Rep. Susan Donovan were out of town and could not attend.

Both panels are against any revival of the evergreen bill that was introduced last year but vetoed by the governor. Under the measure, if two parties cannot come to an agreement on a new contract before the current one expires, the existing pact would stay in effect. 

“This is a unanimous area of concern for the School Committee,” said Emily Copeland, vice chairwoman of that panel.

Council member J. Mark Ryan urged lawmakers to protect citizens’ health and welfare by not cutting Medicaid funding and supporting single-payer healthcare. 

“Are healthcare system is crumbling,” he said. “More than half of the hospitals in Rhode Island have been sold to outside agencies because they’re insolvent. The system that we have is utterly unsustainable.” 

(Not all council members support single-payer; the council’s list of priorities came from individual members and was not voted on by the body.)

Legalization of pot

Both the council and School Committee voiced concerns over the possible legalization of marijuana as a recreational drug this year. 

“I think further study needs to be done on this drug … which has largely unknown effects on developing brains,” said Dr. Ryan.

Council member Linda Ujifusa said she agreed, but that she didn’t want to see the criminalization of marijuana “create more people in the prison system unnecessarily.”

The School Committee pointed out the objections of Police Chief Thomas Lee, who said legalizing pot as a recreational drug would offset the positive progress that’s been made in local children’s reported use of the drug over the past year. It could also lead to more impaired drivers, the chief said.

Rep. Edwards responded that he doubts recreational marijuana will be legalized in Rhode Island in 2018. “I don’t see this coming out of House or Senate this year,” he said.

The School Committee asked legislators to support all initiatives to prevent drug abuse in the local community. Specifically, the panel wants more financial support for local prevention coalitions and for lawmakers to vote for the Uniformed Controlled Substances Act.

“The number-one thing on my list is the substance abuse stuff,” said Sen. Seveney, adding he’s seeking more money for local prevention coalitions. “All the prevention money is coming from federal grants. This has got to get fixed,” he said.

Protecting students

One of the legislative priorities that received the most discussion came from council member Elizabeth Pedro, who wanted to see a statewide policy developed toward the safety and well-being of students during the school day. 

Ms. Pedro said there was a fight at Portsmouth High School just before the Christmas break that was fueled by a spat on social media. “It was a pretty severe incident and the culprit … was only given a three-week suspension. There needs to be more consequences for something that’s equal to the event,” Ms. Pedro said.

Superintendent of Schools Ana Riley said she couldn’t comment about the specific incident due to privacy issues, but that there are only three reasons in which school administrators can expel a student by law: weapons, drugs and an assault on a teacher.

“We are limited. We are provided by law to educate all children,” Ms. Riley said.

Social media, which didn’t exist 20 years ago, makes administrators’ jobs more complicated, she said. The district uses the approach of “restorative justice,” in which the victims and offenders mediate an agreement to which all agree, she said. 

“It’s how can we work with students to understand what happened and how to repair that relationship,” the superintendent said.

Ms. Copeland said she would be hesitant to support any statewide mandate on student discipline. “We would like local control,” she said.

Portsmouth Town Council, Portsmouth School Committee

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