EAST PROVIDENCE — Ward 4 councilman Brian Faria offered up a stern rebuttal to the recent comments made by his Ward 3 counterpart Joe Botelho in regards to the possible reinstatement of fired city manager Richard Kirby to his post.

Mr. Faria, like Mr. Botelho, made his remarks public via a press release issued late Sunday evening, Feb. 19. Mr. Botelho last week, in the same form, called for the return of Mr. Kirby, who was fired by the previous incarnation of the council last August. Since, former city solicitor Tim Chapman has served in the position.

As indicated in his release, Mr. Botelho included the item on the council's February 21 meeting docket under "Appointments."

The full text of Mr. Faria's statement is as follows:

"It's very unfortunate that Councilman Botelho has chosen to turn the City of East Providence into his own personal media playground and I am not going devalue the process of a selecting a city manager by responding to a media circus or any political strong arming.

"Just two days previous to his press announcements to reinstate Mr. Kirby I had actually contacted Joe and was willing to meet with him to openly discuss all his concerns regarding both the acting city manager and the fire testing. I also extended the same conversation telephonically to Councilman Britto. I couldn't have extended myself anymore to these Council members. They instead chose the road of theatrics.

"I have not seen Richard Kirby since he was terminated. To just blindly reinstate him as City manager and ignore the entire hiring process, I would be acting in the most irresponsible manor as your Councilman. I would welcome Richard to apply when and if the Council does decide to advertise for the position.

"This is not a slight to Richard Kirby, I like Richard and sympathized with his firing, as I'm sure most did. However, I've only just heard from Richard for the first time in five months the same day I contacted both Mr. Botelho and Mr.Britto, moreover extending myself to meet with him as well.

"These individual meetings did not take place due their immediate intent to pressure me with media tactics. This was not the right approach and I would respectfully ask Councilman Botelho to remove this item if he truly cares about Richard Kirby and The City Of East Providence."