Jay Medeiros understands the importance of development — in fact, his own family’s wellbeing depends on it.

Since 2004, Medeiros has been the owner of a small contracting business that builds new homes and offers remodels for existing houses. In that time, he built his own home right before the housing crisis struck in 2008, plunging his wife and their newborn son into a realm of uncertainty. He held tight and weathered the storm, and since 2016 has been living in Riverside; now with a teenage daughter added to the mix.

Both of Medeiros’s kids attend East Providence High School, and since his wife is a native of Riverside, his proclaimed love for the only city in which he’s ever lived is not really up for debate.

“I’m a Townie. I wouldn’t change that for the world,” he said. “I love East Providence with all my heart.”

But Medeiros isn’t running for the at-large seat on the East Providence City Council because he believes everything is going perfectly.

“I just feel like we’re moving too fast as a community, as a city,” Medeiros said of his main motivation for running for the seat. “I think we need to pump the breaks a little bit on the way it’s developing.”

Asked what development he was specifically speaking about, Medeiros said he was referring to the large, apartment-style buildings that have popped up in recent years along corridors like Newport Avenue, and the Christine Apartments along the Wampanoag Trail.

The proposed 890-unit complex at the former Metacomet golf course, though, stands out particularly to him.

“I feel Metacomet never should have gone the way it went,” he said. “I think we really should have thought before developing that. I think that’s what tipped a lot of people over the edge.”

The irony of Medeiros, the builder, being skeptical on the city’s rate of development was not lost on him during the course of this interview.

“I’m pro-development. I’m a builder. If I told you I didn’t want any more building going on, I’d put myself out of work,” he said. “I just think that East Providence, in particular, it’s just moving way too fast.”

Medeiros also said that he felt that the council needed more skeptical members questioning decisions made by the administration of Mayor Bob DaSilva.

“The council now, they’re rubber stamps for the administration. That’s what everybody calls it. I feel that is a major problem,” he said. “I’m not going to be a rubber stamp. I’m going to be a guy that’s going to ask the hard questions. And before we do anything, if we act on it, I want to know why we’re acting on it.”

Medeiros said that his incumbent opponent, Bob Rodericks, was a “great guy” but “just not the right guy for the city right now”, and criticized him for raising taxes every year since he was first elected.

Medeiros said that although he’s never been responsible for a municipal budget before, as a small business owner he knows the importance of being able to balance a budget.

“The difference I’ve seen over the years is that if you mess up on the city side, there’s really no repercussions to it. Either you get voted in next time or you don’t,” he said. “If I mess up on my budget, that makes a difference. If I don’t balance my budget, my guys don’t get paid, my contractors don’t get paid.”

He said that he wanted the opportunity to “dissect” the city budget and see where improvements could be made.

“I think taxpayers have the right to know that,” he said.

Medeiros said he believed that Mayor DaSilva’s administration has created a polarized environment in East Providence, which has been amplified by social media groups active in the city. However, he said that he would be happy to work with him if they were both elected in November.

“I'm a guy of reason. Yeah. I can work with anybody,” he said. “If Bob [DaSilva] came to me today and said, ‘Hey Jay, I want to work you on this and that,’ — if it makes sense, I'll do it. If it doesn't make sense, I'm not doing it.”

Medeiros said that he didn’t have a long list of priorities that he wants to accomplish as a city councilman, but he wanted to do right by the city he’s lived in for all 50 years of his life.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but I would like to see it improved a little bit more as far as cleanliness. I don’t think it’s as clean as it can be,” he said. “I think we have a little bit of work to do on that and that’s something I’d want to work on as well, you know, putting the departments in the right places to make sure that people come into our city for the first time or people that visit our city see the beautiful city that it is.”