Changing of the guard on Warren Town Council

DePasquale out as president, Keri Cronin in

By Ted Hayes
Posted 12/12/18

Keri Cronin became Warren’s first-ever female town council president Tuesday night, when she succeeded former president Joseph DePasquale by a razor thin 3-2 vote.

Ms. Cronin, the second highest …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Changing of the guard on Warren Town Council

DePasquale out as president, Keri Cronin in

Posted

Keri Cronin became Warren’s first-ever female town council president Tuesday night, when she succeeded former president Joseph DePasquale by a 3-2 vote.

Ms. Cronin, the second-highest vote getter in the November election behind Mr. DePasquale, earned support for her nomination to president by fellow councilors Brandt D. Heckert (who nominated her) and John Hanley. Mr. DePasquale and freshman councilor Steve Calenda voted against her.

The changing of power had an air of tension about it as Mr. DePasquale rolled his eyes several times as the votes came in for Ms. Cronin, and a few minutes later when Mr. Hanley, nominated by Mr. Heckert, was named vice president.

Mr. DePasquale, who stood and offered his chair to Ms. Cronin after the vote, did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

Ms. Cronin declined to talk about the specifics of the vote and how it came to be. But Mr. DePasquale, she said, “has done the best job that he could do, but it’s time to try things a little differently.”

She also alluded to the tension in the air following the transfer of power:

“We’re never going to move this town forward any further unless we operate as a team and remove the ego, remove the negativity, remove the ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’ attitude.”

Instead, she said, councilors need to work as a team, realizing that the real number of import — three votes for a majority — outweighs individual considerations.

“I think this is a great council,” she said. “We have the ability to work really well together and we all bring great value, we all have strong opinions and expertise, and I expect everyone to bring that to the meeting every month. I have no intention of smoothing anyone’s opinion or keeping anyone down. We all have one equal vote here.”

Though she said, “I wish gender was not an issue,” Ms. Cronin said she was proud of Warren’s recent history, noting that the town manager, school committee chairwoman and town treasurer are all women.

“If we are going go get some balance here, then this is how it’s going to work,” she said.
Apart from Mr. DePasquale, the only other person to vote against the two nominations was Mr. Calenda, who opposed naming Ms. Cronin president. When asked why after the meeting, he gave this explanation:

“I hold Keri in very high regard,” he said. “Joe asked for my support (and) John asked me for his support also. Keri didn’t ask.”

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.