To the editor:

In 1970, a small group of community minded Tiverton residents worked diligently to fight against a proposed oil refinery which threatened the beauty and safety of our town. They called their group Save Our Community (SOC). Their mission was to research the risks associated with this proposed refinery, and to educate the voters of the threats to our air quality, crude oil stench and compromise to our local ecosystem. SOC was successful in getting their message to the voters who decided that the toxic risk was not worth Northeast Petroleum’s suggested increased employment opportunities and tax decreases. We are eternally grateful for the work of these individuals who fought so long and hard to save our community.

Fast forward to 2018. Once again, we need to Save Our Community. The current threats come in the form of some of our newly elected Town Councilors. The TTA majority (Coulter, Katz, Driggs and Cook) showed their true agenda during the December 27 meeting. All votes were 4-3 with the TTA majority voting “for” and Councilors Hilton, Perry and deMedeiros voting “against” all items; I suspect this is what we should expect from this Council. The two major items/votes included:

• Delay to approve the expired contract of our current and longtime tax assessor so they could clean up some language in the contract which Coulter did not like. Coulter reported he did not want to “rush” into this contract as he wanted to take a good look at the language. He was unable to provide the particular language he was not comfortable with even though the employment contract has been in effect for a number of years without issue. Instead Coulter delayed approving the employment contract of a long-time valued employee.

• Hired Giovanni Cicione as solicitor under suspicious circumstances, including, no resume available to Councilors Perry, Hilton, deMedeiros, Cook or Coulter to review. Questions as to whether or not a contract was already completed were never answered. Mrs. Driggs reported she interviewed him by herself, without any involvement from any of the other six councilors, although Mr Cicione stated that he had discussed the position with “several” of the councilors prior to this council meeting. Reportedly, only Driggs and Katz had met Mr Cicione prior to this night. Despite so much controversy, the TTA-4 never strayed from their mission to rush into this hiring of their selected “candidate” despite how wrong this decision was on so many levels.

Three of our councilors, (Driggs, Coulter and Katz) currently have pending lawsuits against the town. They claimed during the meeting that they have dropped their lawsuits. Further investigation shows that they filed motions to drop their lawsuits that afternoon but hearings are not scheduled until April allowing them to keep them pending. Three of our councilors (Hilton, Perry and deMedeiros) questioned if it is ethical for these four councilors to hire the very solicitor who could potentially be involved with deciding their lawsuits against the town.

At the very least, why not seek out an advisory opinion from the RI State Ethics Commission? A Request For Proposals (RFP) is the traditional method of advertising for, interviewing, and hiring from a pool of multiple qualified candidates. The TTA-4 (Coulter, Katz, Driggs and Cook) decided to bring in their one “connected” choice, without including the other council members, nor the Town Administrator in the process. This is likely one of many possible violations of the Open Meeting Act just from this one night.

For hours, voters, including lawyers, lined up to question the legality and ethical behavior of the four TTA councilors (Coulter, Katz, Driggs and Cook) who felt the need to rush into hiring a new solicitor that night. Our previous town solicitor rendered his resignation shortly after the election, yet he agreed to stay in the position until a replacement could be hired. Therefore, there was no need to rush into hiring an interim solicitor.

The TTA-4 (Coulter, Katz, Driggs and Cook) demonstrated a total lack of respect, as they rarely made eye contact with their constituents who spoke at the meeting. These voters questioned, pleaded with and begged the TTA-4 (Coulter, Katz, Driggs and Cook) to hold off on their vote and to do the right thing. Their answer to the voters shows in their votes. They had no intention of changing their agenda, despite the pleas from their constituents.

Am I angry? You bet I am, however I am more disappointed. The TTA-4 (Cook, Driggs, Katz and Coulter) feel they don’t need to play by the rules. They are putting our town at risk for legal action, which is interesting as they continue to state that they plan to cut the legal budget.

I encourage all voters to review the tape of the December 27, 2018 Town Council meeting. You will be shocked at the behavior of these four elected officials. Get informed. Attend the meetings. We need to keep the spotlight on the TTA-4 and make them accountable. Remind them that they were elected to represent the needs of all the voters, not just their own personal needs. They promised to be transparent but they never promised to be ethical. We deserve better! It is again time to Save Our Community!

Deborah Scanlon Janick

Tiverton