Politics & Government

Fiscal Matters Stir Up Election Season Debate

Republican challenger Antone C. Viveiros pressed the Town Council on several budget issues related to various municipal and school department issues Monday night.

The first shots of the post-Primary Election season fired across political bows Monday night, when candidate Antone C. Viveiros pressed the Town Council on spending practices of both the town and school department.

Viveiros, an outspoken local activist, six-time Town Council Republican candidate and chairman of the Concerned Island Taxpayers Association, stepped up to the podium several times throughout the council meeting to voice concerns and to lob harsh criticisms at the seven-member governing body comprised of a majority of Democrats, as the council made its way through the night's meeting agenda to address various issues that included campground fees, beach revenues, and consultant fees, as well as the school department's fund balance and expenditures for the current year.

"I think the council has to take the bull by the horns and stop all this spending," Viveiros said, at one point referring specifically to a $99,000 consultant fee to study commercial development along West Main Road and to look at utilizing surplus U.S. Navy lands in the town's west end. Viveiros charged, "We're just spending too much money. We have to start cutting right now."

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In some instances, those council members running for re-election this year did not dismiss Viveiros' comments, nor did they take them lightly.

"That corridor provides more (tax) revenue for this town than any other form," Democrat Councillor Edward Silveira shot back regarding the West Main Road consultant fee. Calling the expense an "investment" for Middletown's future of economic development, Silveira added, "These are things we need to do—to continue to think outside the box…for a sustainable future for the community."

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Councillor Richard Cambra, also a Democrat, agreed and Town Administrator Shawn J. Brown publically supported their assertions, first clarifying that the consultant fee was included among the budgeted line items in the current fiscal year budget and, secondly, noting that about half the consulting fees were paid by grants that Middletown taxpayers aren't shouldering.

"Part of the project is to study how to use the Navy lands on the west side of town," explained Brown. He noted that ongoing efforts to commercially develop the busy retail and commercial areas of West Main Road would integrate and connect the east and west sides of town, currently divided by very a busy four-lane town road. "Hopefully in the end it will result in a positive change for the town of Middletown."

On the subject of Second Beach Campground fees, Viveiros criticized the council for increasing seasonal rates by 25-percent to $4,762 earlier this summer and blamed the move on a way to make up for town-wide overspending at the expense of the seasonal residents.

"It's about fair market value," Cambra responded in defense of the council decision, then noted that rates of other southern New England municipal campgrounds are comparable.

"If we made any mistake, it was that we didn't raise the rates each season on a regular basis," said Silveira, who cited the campground waiting list of about 110 names as proof that most campers must still consider the rates as "reasonable and fair."

Viveiros also criticized the town's oversight of School Department spending, particularly with regards to the recent Aquidneck Elementary School parking lot expansion project—already a point of contention at the meeting.

While school facilities Director Edward Collins maintained the lot expansion project had been planned and discussed since 2004—and that the lot improvements benefit the town as well as the school because it provides public parking for Little League ball fields as well as teachers—councilors on Monday night questioned the Middletown Public School District's approval process for the recent project which, they claim, had not  first sought the Town Council's approval for funding. Town Administrator Shawn Brown noted that the Town Charter requires Town Council approval for such expenses, but that the capital improvement project "came as somewhat of a surprise" to town officials when the construction bid was awarded in August and work began shortly thereafter.

The Town Council authorized Councillor Barbara A. VonVillas to look into the matter further and to send inquiry questions to the School Committee seeking answers and further information about the parking lot project.

When Viveiros persisted to probe the council on the parking lot matter, Silveira responded that "one governing body" was not going to get in the business of "micro-managing" "another governing body."


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