Council happy with outcome of litigation

Posted 3/1/12

“I’m really satisfied with the way it has progressed and I’m gratified because so many of Warwick’s voices are echoed within the elements of the agreement,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille …

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Council happy with outcome of litigation

Posted

“I’m really satisfied with the way it has progressed and I’m gratified because so many of Warwick’s voices are echoed within the elements of the agreement,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille Vella-Wilkinson of the input the Airport Litigation Subcommittee received from residents in regards to expansion of T.F. Green Airport. “We did seek advice from many of the stakeholders within the city.”

Along with Vella-Wilkinson, who served as chairwoman of the council subcommittee negotiating with the airport, City Council President Bruce Place and Ward 9 Councilman Steven Merolla were panel members. They met in several executive sessions within the past week and last night held a specially scheduled meeting at City Hall that was open to the public to discuss a memorandum of understanding with the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) that would end the law suit.

On Monday evening, the rest of the council was updated on negotiations by City Solicitor John Harrington, said Place.

“There were some questions asked, we clarified some issues,” Place said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

Ward 1 Councilman Steven Colantunono said he is pleased with the way the subcommittee handled negotiations. He is appreciative to them for all they have accomplished in the matter.

“They did a terrific job,” he said. “They really went about it in a very thoughtful way and I can’t thank them enough. All along, we knew we were going to get airport expansion and I think we looked at what we can do to make sure that it’s something that works for the majority of our constituents, as well as economic development. It takes those two things and balance them pretty well.”

Like Vella-Wilkinson, he is happy they sought input from residents. He feels people in the community, such as Michael Zarum, Richard Langseth and Raleigh Jenkins, offered valuable advice that helped shape the outcome.

“A lot of folks were very vocal about it and very involved,” said Colantuono. “They took an interest in the situation and actually taught us a lot. “You have to understand their perspective, too, and they’ve been very helpful.”

Ward 4 Councilman Joseph Solomon, Ward 5 Councilman John DelGiudice, as well as Ward 7 Councilman Charles “C.J.” Donovan, all said they are thrilled progress has been made. For Solomon, he said he is happy items that have been agreed to are superior to those that have been agreed to in the past.

“We also had an opportunity to fine-tune some of the other items that were discussed, which I believe will result in a positive outcome for the city, the state, the airport and those who live and work around the airport,” Solomon said.

DelGiudice shared the same sentiments. Overall, he feels the city is moving in the right direction.

“Everyone seems to want to work together to resolve the issues,” he said.

Donovan said he is encouraged by what was presented to the council. Some of the issues that were a concern to him, such as environmental factors, land acquisition and the parks at Winslow Field, have been addressed.

“I used to live on Warwick Lake and I know how important Buckeye Brook is,” said Donovan. “I want to make sure that the glycol and the other carcinogens are taken care of.”

Merolla said it should be noted that he and the other members of the subcommittee have gone out of their way to do the best job for the city and its constituents. He said it’s hard to even venture a guess at the amount of hours that were spent in litigation.

“If anybody ever says that this is a part-time job all you have to do is look at this one issue to realize the sacrifices that individual elected officials make, not only to their jobs or businesses, but also to their families,” said Merolla. “People need to know that this isn’t a part-time job. Sometimes people will say, ‘They only have two meetings a month,’ but no one considers budget hearings or crises like this or hurricanes or floods and other emergencies that occur.”

While he said he understands that it may be annoying for residents to have been in the dark about litigations, he wants them to know how necessary it was. He said it was in their best interest.

“It’s tough when constituents call you and ask you for a remedy to a problem and you can’t provide that remedy through the litigation process because it’s not an issue that’s before the court,” he said. “For me, that’s the most frustrating part of the appeal. People don’t realize that we’re limited to what took place during the EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] process and the court is reviewing the analysis that RIAC did. We’re also reviewing the mitigation measures that they suggested. But, there may be other ways to mitigate that have nothing to do with EIS and therefore are not before the court.”

Comments

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  • Concerned52

    For the record: I tried with other citizens to get the committee to allow the Citizen Stakeholders to meet within the special committee to address the committee behind closed doors. I submitted a couple of brief overview summaries for consideration outside the closed sessions. The citizen stakeholders who served for years within the planning process and who had the most detail about actual events and documentation and research regarding this publicly challenged airport planning process and who were involved in creating the original list of citizen concerns were not represented on this committee. While the actions of the City Council gained several valuable considerations and concessions from the airport corporation, it did little to address the essential identified flaws of this federal airport planning process as represented in the Record of Decision. End result: the City gained some valuable local concessions and agreements, while the local planners avoided much needed and desired independent federal scrutiny of an openly challenged federal airport planning process. Not exactly an equal "quid pro quo". While the City Council's unanimous approval results in a few valuable local concessions, it did nothing to stop the citizen stakeholders from continuing to request a federal probe of this federal planning process, and those who appear to be manipulating it.

    Raleigh Jenkins, SRC Citizen Stakeholder, at Large

    Warwick

    Thursday, March 1, 2012 Report this

  • Michael2012

    I'm glad it's over. Time to move forward. Kudos to the Warwick City Council for a job well done. They all should be voted back in

    Thursday, March 1, 2012 Report this

  • Sad_State_Of_Affairs

    Michael2012: Not likely to happen due to the large amount of furious residents.

    Thursday, March 1, 2012 Report this

  • Sad_State_Of_Affairs

    Though, Solomon will probably survive the cut. Not the he answers his phore or e-mails when you have a question or concern.......

    Thursday, March 1, 2012 Report this

  • WarwickTaxpayer

    @Michael: Vote them all back in. It is clear you do not have a clue as to what is going on in city government. The city is all but broke. If it wasn't for the near max property tax increase, including the new car tax we would be like Providence. The unfunded liabilities are over $600 million in the city. Pay attention to the dollars and cents and you will agree that most should be thrown out of office.

    Friday, March 2, 2012 Report this

  • Michael2012

    This is exactly why we need the expansion and other projects to develop in Warwick. It's called progress

    Friday, March 2, 2012 Report this

  • RichardLangseth

    Michael2012: There are plenty of projects out there like the $22 million Apponaug Circulator, $12 million in required fire code fixes and more roof fixes for Warwick schools, $20 million plus flood and environmental fixes at Warwick sewer plant, phase in costs for consolidating schools, and on and on. All of these would be progress too and the only reason that there is no progress is that there is no money.

    One could debate whether spending hundreds of millions for a relatively short extension to the main runway at Green is worth it. But, that is an academic discussion because the Airport Corporation must contribute at least $25 million to the safety improvements, another $22 million for the glycol plant, $4 million for the ball fields and at least $2 million per year for years and years to come to run the InterLink. Before anything else happens with the runway expansion, the Airport needs another $16 million to buy out people in harm's way.

    Tell me where all this money is coming from?

    Saturday, March 3, 2012 Report this

  • WarwickTaxpayer

    @Michael: Please explain how the airport expansion project is going to pay for the over $600 million in unfunded liabilities in Warwick and why this one vote by the city council constitutes the reason they should all be re-elected.

    Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Report this