Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur knows how to make a hit at his own fundraiser – invite his six-month-old granddaughter Adeline Murphy.

The pair made the rounds of tables at Sam’s Inn Thursday evening. Ladouceur, now serving his second term, didn’t really need to say anything. All eyes were fixed on Adeline. She knows how to win votes, too. She smiled and cooed.

Ladouceur may not need all that many votes. So far, he’s running unopposed, although, as he knows, anything can happen between now and declaration period, June 27 to June 29 at 4 p.m.

In brief comments, Ladouceur outlined the milestones of his tenure on the council and some of the challenges lying ahead. He also put to rest the rumor mill that has him running for mayor.

“I’ve been asked a lot whether I’m running for mayor. Let’s clear up the rumors; I’m running again for City Council,” he said.

“Thank you,” was the resounding reply from Richard Corrente, who announced his candidacy as a Democrat for mayor early last year. There were laughs from the crowd.

In summarizing his legislative tenure, Ladouceur said when he ran for office he made bringing sewers to constituents – many of whom had been waiting for 20 years – a priority. The councilman established the Sewer Review Commission, launching an extensive series of hearings that culminated with council approval of additional sewer bonding and revisions to sewer authority enabling legislation. That measure cleared the House of Representatives earlier this month, and Ladouceur is hopeful of Senate approval and enactment.

Referring to an estate that was in a state of deterioration for more than a decade on Warwick Neck, Ladouceur also talked about minimum housing violations and how that was cleared up. He also talked about the issuance of 2,500 tax sale notices to property owners who had either failed to pay taxes or utility bills.

“We were able to fix that,” he said. Explaining, Ladouceur said he found that the city had failed to send out delinquency notices and in some cases payment hadn’t been made in two to three years.

The councilman also spoke about the School Department and initiatives he has taken to gain information about their operations. He pointed out that he pushed for release of the Vincent Ragosta report on how the school administration handled reports of inappropriate behavior on the part of former Gorton Junior High School teacher Mario Atoyan. The council subpoenaed the department for the report, gaining its release after the Superior Court denied school efforts to keep it under wraps. And last month, Ladouceur’s resolution for an investigation of school special education services was unanimously approved. Ladouceur asked for the investigation in response to constituent complaints.

Ladouceur spoke of the cooperative and teamwork approach taken by the council.

“This is only the beginning,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of things to do.”