Town Council - Regular Meeting

supposedly. John needs one. In fact, everybody's been very accommodating. Are we good? Actually, when we are um No, I think we are in open session now. I think he's up and like to announce no votes were taken in executive session. I'll accept a motion to seal the minutes of executive session. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I I would like to direct the town administrator, finance director, and harbor commission chair to act in accordance and execute what was said in executive session. Have a mot. That's my motion. Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Thank you.

We're going to salute the flag now. I to stand. One nation God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. We have a public hearing. Harbor Commission proposed increase to moing fees. I am going to change the order of business and I'm going to include OB1 in the public hearing for a note for that. I am going to open the public hearing. Any comments? No, we discussed this in uh December. I think we I thought we'd already voted on this. So, I guess we just have to ratify it. So, I'll make a motion to ratify the price increases. This is part of the uh ordinance.

Yeah. Oh, you're going through the ordinance process, right? Okay. Have anyone want to speak on this on this uh public hearing? Not seeing any solicitor. Can I take the vote on OB1 and then close the public hearing or you want me to close the public hearing first? Um, close the public hearing. Going to close the public hearing. Thank you. OB1 consider a vote to approve harbor commission request proposed increase to moing fees as previously voted on December 4th, 2025 council meeting. I have a motion. Motion to approve. Second.

Any further discussions? All in favor? I. Thank you. Announcements. Do we have any announcements? I have a couple. Sure. Good evening. Uh couple announcements. Uh first, the preliminary report of the budget committee went up on our website this afternoon in preparation for public hearing night between town council and the budget committee. Um, so people can find that at the news tab on the website and

excuse me on just so they know it's embedded in the financial town meeting announcement.

So go to news, go to financial town meeting and you'll find the preliminary report. Thank you Heather. Um, any questions on that? Monday night the there is a special uh joint meeting of the town council and the budget committee. It's a special public hearing budget report and that's for the FY27 budget. Any questions on that? Okay. Uh the other announcement just wanted to keep you a breast of um plans for financial town meeting. Um you had a letter from Larry Anderson expressing concern about coordination and potential overflow of the crowd in the gymnasium. Um we've done a lot of planning thanks to to Heather and Larry. We've met several times. We've done a walkth through over at the school um and made preliminary plans for how we're going to use up to four spaces in the school uh how the information technology is going to work to make that uh hopefully as smooth as possible. Um we will have ongoing meetings but we're making good progress uh and coming up with protocols for um how decisions will be made about uh what happens if we actually exceed that capacity. Uh and also uh how we have uh effective communications on the ground that night so that uh people inside and outside the building know what's going on, what decisions have been made. And um just to remind folks that is May 19th and uh Heather has proposed actually

opening the building earlier than usual. So the building will be open at 5 and there will be a venue for the financial town meeting and a venue for voting on the budget committee uh candidates. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. An announcement request for legal services from town boards, committees, and commissions. I have one request from the Harp Commission. This has been addressed. Thank you. Approval of minutes. Motion to approve the minutes of the uh last town council meeting unless anybody has any comments or questions on it. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor?

I department head reports. Motion to place all department head reports on files. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. Old business. We've already done one. Thanks to me. Thank you for the one left. Old business to receive proposals for furniture for the Brownell Library. Do I have a motion? So moved. I don't have received any. Wow. We need we received any, but we haven't. I can pipe in on that. Uh, if you want,

there were no proposals received, so I think Sue is going to go back out for bids and try to beat the bushes again. Motion to have Sue come back to the town council when she has proposals for furniture library. Thank you. Second. All in favor? I business three receive letters of interest from ad hoc transfer station review committee considered a vote. Heather, how many do I have? Uh, we have three.

All right. I'm going to put three people on that. I have two people that uh one person that called me that wants to be on it. I'm going to name those people now. We have Vin Kennedy, Micah Shapiro, Samaronoski, Curtis Cohane, Ana Wallik. I have two uh exeicio advisors that will be non- voting. Ted Bodington, DPW director, and Jonathan Gabriel, RT director. be a total of seven members, five voting, two non. That's my motion. Do I have a second? Second. Further discussion. All in favor? I.

If there are no objections, I would like to uh bring up new business 8. Uh next, um I'm respectful of Chief Reigns's time and his commute. Um and he has something on the agenda on eight. I'd like to go to that now. Is there a uh an objection? I move that you make that. Thank you. I have a second. Second. All in favor. Chief Reigns. We're going to go eight for you. This is a request from Police Chief Scott Reigns for discussion regarding the purchase of automated license plate readers, block camera technology for the use of Little Compton Police Department investigative matters.

Thank you, Mr. President. And I uh I I do appreciate getting called up early. I I don't have an issue with staying for the length of the meeting, but thank you. I'll take it. It is it is the NFL drafting week, so I'll be tuning in. Wins are on. Socks are on. There's a lot going on, but thank you. Thank you. So um remember that

that's not limited. If you're offered a position in that draft maybe uh let's see 19 you know what

I was a senior in high in college so yeah that was a long time ago. No not tall enough I don't think. So uh thank you once again. Um, I'm here this evening. There's a uh a tool that brought up to me several months ago by our detective and deputy chief and they wanted me to look into the use of clock cameras and flock technology. Uh, if as we've heard over probably the last several months, this is a pretty hot topic. Uh the state police received a grant, very large grant to purchase and maintain, I believe the number is 39 flock cameras throughout the state. So being the nice people that they are, they went to each individual community that they had planned to place a camera on state property. One of those being Warren that the solicitor also represents. Uh Tivan was one. So what was happening was the state police were getting on the agenda for local uh councils and they were uh asking permission. Uh most have agreed, some have not. Uh Warren uh disagreed and they voted no. Uh there were a couple communities, Bristol being one that uh continued it a few times. Eventually they said yes. uh Middletown in the same uh in the same boat. They uh continued it a few times and I'm not sure where they stand right now. So, what I did is I did a deep dive into the the use of the flock safety and did some research and by no means I'm going to let you know that I am not an expert in any of this. uh it has to do with a lot of uh you know cloud storage and privacy and technology and that's where I know

my limitations and I go to our IT director for that. Um and when it comes to contracts and policies I also run those by the solicitor. So we have a draft policy that I provided for uh each of the members. Does everyone have a copy of that? Um the policy is there. I also included a a summary um from a lot of the research that I did, some help from the solicitor um and some help from the state police and other departments. So, I presented all of that to the council. So, I guess I'm just going to ask, does anyone have any questions? Because I I'm sure there's some questions about the technology, what it is, what it isn't. All of that information is provided on on that summary and rather than me just read it out loud to everyone. I'm sure everyone's looked at it before already. Who has questions?

Is there a cost to the town for this cost? The annual cost per camera is $3,000. 3,000. I mean, I think it's a good tool if you have a stolen car or something like that, but I'm also and I know you address it in here, but I think there might be some questions from the citizen about privacy on this and I but

and and that's the question that's everyone everyone has brought up and that's a great question. So, you know, jumping into it, what it is and what is not. So, flock is not GPS. It doesn't follow your car. Flock is not uh pinging what in in law enforcement we use the term pinging of a cellular phone where we can follow you and your cell phone with the use of cell phone towers. Flock is a single photograph. It is one photograph of the back of your vehicle. All right. If you're doing what you're supposed to do as a vehicle owner in the state of Rhode Island, you get your car registered, right? That's a public information, your license plate, right? Um, you also have a driver's license, valid driver's license, things of that nature. Your vehicle is on a public roadway. The camera is not in a parking lot of a private uh business. It's not in a neighborhood. We're not putting them in Oak Forest. We're not putting them down Sakana Point. Uh they're in strategic locations for Little Compton. like this. That kind of location is pretty easy. We basically have four main routes in and out of town. If you start on the east, you have Crannle, Stone Church, Highway, and then West Main. Those are the the four in-n-outs. The ones used most obviously West Main, Crannle, and Long Highway. Stone Church lesser than the other three. So, those are the suggested points of placement for the cameras, eventual cameras. So, would there still be one camera or would they be three cameras?

Start with one. We're going to start with one and then and build up and um see where we can get the funds from. Okay. Yes, it would be 3,000 for each. Yeah. Initially, this is just a request for one camera. Eventually, we'd like I I think three is a good number. You've said it reads the license plate. I assume it doesn't doesn't read the license plate. It takes a picture of the back of your car. If you walked outside today and walked down the commons, you could take a photograph with your phone of the back of everyone's car, right? Is that strange? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, obviously, but you're not doing anything illegal. You're not violating anyone's privacy.

I mean, it it's Rhode Island. Everybody wants a low number plate. They want to people to they want people to see your plates, right? Everybody wants their initials and a low number. Everybody in Rhode Island wants you to see that plate. So, then I'm assuming it doesn't check speed.

It does not. It's not it's not a ticket camera. It it's a camera at the top of a pole. So, when you get the the video image of it, it shows the back of your car. It doesn't tell you who's in the car. You might be able to tell the number of occupants. Um and it depending on the vehicle, maybe you can tell, you know, male, female. Um if it's a convertible, I guess that would be a little easier, but you know, we can't always go by hair length and and how people are built. So, it's not giving that information. It's not facial recognition. It's it's not like going to the airport and, you know, they're taking a picture of you and letting you on a plane. It is a it's a picture. It's not a video solid image of the back of your vehicle. And on that picture, it will indicate, okay, it came from camera number one, which is located on Long Highway at on, you know, January 1st, ever at whatever time. So,

now you go ahead. I'm sorry. stationary would they are stationary to stay in the same spot all the time. Yes.

Yes. So Flock does a survey of the area and then they will give us different options. Okay. We can put it on a telephone pole here. Now if they put it on a telephone pole they're on their end they have to go to Rhode Island Energy and say hey uh we want to put a camera on this pole and we're going to hook into your electricity. Now that's on them. They're paying for that electricity. Um or they can do self-standing poles um with solar power. Um so they're not overly intrusive. Um they're probably about 7 and 12 in tall, couple three inches deep, four or five inches wide. Um not sure how big of a solar panel it would be to power something like that. And the primary objective I'm assuming is if there's an incident in town, then the police department has this sort of data to use when investigating something.

So, for an example, uh we go to a house that says, "I just got broken in. As I came home, this black pickup truck was pulling out of my out of my driveway and it headed north on Long Highway." Okay, that gives us some information. So, we can take that. Now, you don't have to have a license plate to check flock cameras. It does uh identifiers by make, model, color of vehicle. You can even put in it had ski racks. It had a bumper sticker. Um so if you if we know a black pickup with uh you know, let's call it a a flag bumper sticker on the on the rear bed.

Put all that information in and then put a time frame in. It just happened. So, we know it's probably going up and down long highway within the last hour or two. We'll get a list of all the vehicles that meet that criteria and then we'll be able to go from there. Yes. Um, thank you for providing the policy, the draft policy. That's really helpful. Um, and it looked very thoughtfully done. Um, and I guess I just want to say generally I'm very supportive of you and and our and our very small police force who do a great job and I recognize that a tool like this is a force multiplier for a small and that was that's in my notes. You know, we're eight people right now.

Audited for 12. We only have eight and in two months I lose one to retirement. We'll be seven people. So yes, this is a a force multiplier in this and it's a great tool. It's not going to solve every crime andor investigation that we have. And let's let's, you know, spread it out here a little. It's not just criminal investigations. Amber alerts, silver alerts, purple alerts. Uh, example, today on my way into work, listening to the radio over the intercity channel, Providence called South Kingstone over the air and said, "We had just entered an individual that um threatened to harm himself, suicidal. They got a flock hit on his vehicle on Route One South in South Kingtown. South Kingtown stopped that car. That individual got the help he needed today.

Not just crimes. It's not just crimes. There's a lot there's a lot of other things. I have just a couple things. Um, so you said $3,000 for the camera. Is that we actually purchase the camera or does Flock own the camera and we're purchasing their service? That is a good question. I think the camera belongs to us as well as the service and the data. But but the data st again I'm no I'm no cloud uh IT exp by any stretch but um so the the data is stored on the it's a cloud-based storage cloud-based storage yes okay but Flock owns the data no we own the data from that camera I would say and and I can verify this but my guess is that Flock owns the camera um because they're responsible to repair it if it's broken

okay so there's going to there's some kind of warranty with the purchase of the camera. Sort of like we're paying for more like we're paying for a service it sounds like. Yes. Okay. I think so. All right. And um I know you shared the policy the draft policy with us. Were you you have the the agreement but that would be entered into between whether it's your department or the No, we haven't we haven't entered into anything yet. So I don't have anything.

Okay. So one thing I did a little research on it and and from what I understand and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong. there's like um options for who you're sharing with and I saw some notes about that in your policy. So you can select what level of of sharing of information you want to do and with what agencies state federal and under

it's it's who we give access to our data to our pictures. Who can we give access to our pictures? Um, so when they a police department call say fall river uh is looking for something and they think that it's a little Compton resident, we can give them access to our flock cameras. They can do the same search that we do from their software at their police department utilizing the the pictures that are and the data that are that's in our cloud, so to speak. So I think obviously it's it's an issue of balancing the goods that comes with it and the concerns that I think probably some people will have regarding their uh regarding that data storage and their and privacy and and uh information sharing um specifically I think is one and the research that I've done I I've read a lot of articles where people are you know have shared concerns about that um when you um are sh when you're select those organiz ganations or agents rather that you're be sharing with is it is it detailed level of what you're sharing like bolo only you know emergency only or is it like a full share to

so when when we do a search when you do a shirt again I'm not an expert and I haven't been trained in this nor am I going to be trained in this this will be for the detective and the deputy chief only all right um so your search needs a reason you can't just randomly go in there and start flipping around for plates. It needs I'm sure there's some kind of a drop down menu that will say investigation, Amber Alert, Purple Alert, things of that nature. Why are you searching for this? Um there's a I believe there's a portal of some kind where Fall River will give us a message. We click on a box which gives them access to our perhaps our data. Uh I'm not overly specific. We can deny. we don't have to give them if we don't think it's a valid reason uh then we don't have to give them permission but you know if if it's if it's an investigation you know people aren't abusing this technology um there's a lot of police departments there thousands of police departments in the in the in the US utilizing it um there's been and I know uh they've brought up in the past that there was an issue in Texas a few years ago where someone did something fairly ridiculous um in a search. Uh they were searching for an individual for not a criminal andor an investigative reason and that continues to come up. Well, you know, with our policies, people do stuff like that. It results in discipline and you know, it's like everything else in police work. Uh the levels of discipline go up as you know, your egregiousness of your violation goes up.

Thank you. Okay. Tony, what was uh what was the reason why Warren didn't want Can you expand on that? Uh it was a it was a different proposal uh than what um you you're seeing here now. Uh in Warren that would be state police, state highway. Uh, this proposal is going to be for Little Compton, correct? It'll be controlled by the Little Compton Police Department. It would be on a local road.

That was the main difference. I think some of the concerns uh the town council up there stem from the fact that um this would not be a Warren Police Department uh camera. The other thing too is uh what I just want to say, and I talked to the chief about this. I I um I do want to take a look at the contract and uh if uh this uh proposal is to be approved um at what you need to do is make it subject to a review of the contract. I just want to make sure I it it it is what it is. So that was something I asked for in Warren too. Maybe

that contract was not going to be between the town lot. the contract was going to be between the state police and flock and I think that was there was some reluctance to uh disclose it to a third party but this different this will be between the the town and that's correct yes we control this we can control this correct me if I'm wrong Tony I think the state police did they even really have to go and say hey to warrant and say we're putting the camera up because it was state property that they were going to place it on correct

well that was one of the questions they got why are you even here Why are you asking for our permission? Can't you just do it? And the reply from Captain Albong was that uh they had made a decision that they wanted the permission from the local communities. That's why they were there. The issue was never addressed, but you know, I have to agree it was a a state um it would be a state would be state property on a state road used for a state purpose. Okay. But they've asked every local community. They have. And I think I I think they're just uh trying to play nice in the sandbox. Yes.

Yeah. And you said Tivvenant opted out of it. No. Tivan TIVN has uh did they have their own cameras? They had their own cameras prior to the state police asking to put uh one and then when Warren said no, they took the the another Warren camera and put it on 24 as well. So, Tiveran uh has two state police cameras on Route 24 and they have an unknown number of their own cameras. I'm not sure. I think it's just two. But this information wouldn't even though it's controlled by the state police, the information is only going to go to our department. No, the camera is ours. Police have nothing to do with us. this is out.

I called them and asked them what they were going to do with the warrant camera and if they wanted to put it down here and they they they said no. So, Chief, the flock summary, which is on the back of what you gave us. Yep. Uh says the data is is stored for 30 days. The draft policy, I don't see where it says that. Um how long it's stored on the cloud for? Well, we go it'll be 30 days. It'll be 30 days. So every 30 days whatever we have in our cloud is gone.

So So one thing that I'm trying to get over the hump with is this is an unre unregulated industry. There's no regulations on it. Uh which which I find uh concerning by regulated? What do you mean by

There's no there's no laws on flot cameras that I know of. Are there in in the legislature or in DC or the because I've done my own research on this. Um basically to me there's uh one main case in Rhode Island that governs this. It's the name of the case state versus Berkkey. And that case um addressed what type of privacy issues you have uh when you're driving on on on a public road. And the holding in that case was comes to license plates only because the license plate was issued by the state. It's in plain view as you drive down the road uh and you're on a public road. you therefore have no privacy interest in your um license plate. So uh I think the idea behind this is that if it's only a um license plate reader, there is no um expectation of privacy on it. Now uh um so long as it's limited to the reading of license plates on the rear of the uh vehicle, this is why I want to see the contract. I'm sure that's the case. But if there's other technologies, then there's other issues. Then other cases are involved in it. But if it's just a license plate reader, that's what you're looking at.

When you say other technologies, do you mean like speed cameras that that sort of technology or? Uh yes. And and I you know I I'm not because I'm not an expert in this at all but um to the extent that there are other types of technologies like facial recognition and things of that nature then that would be governed by different uh uh cases different uh constitutional issues. But to the extent that it is just a license plate reader, that's the case that controls. And with the flock cameras, there's no requirement to have any signage posted around the cameras that their license plates are being. That's correct. Yes.

Unlike I think with speed cameras that there's a requirement that there's signage around it, right? Again, that's correct. Yes. Uh there's a new speed camera in North Kingtown that I drive by and there are four big yellow signs, big giant yellow signs with a camera on both sides of the road. Yes. Well aware that there's a speed sign there. Probably has a little wind. Uh Patrick, page five, F one. I see it now. Thank you.

Any other comments from the council? Thought it might be beneficial maybe to have our chief information officer take a look at the contract too just to get into the weeds since this is his uh any other house. Any other comments from the

council? I mean there's on page three prohibited uses talks about invasion of privacy, harassment or intimidation. Protected characterist characteristics personal use and first amendment rights. They seem to be all covered that if anybody misuses this, there's going to be appropriate u prosecution involved with it. So, and I'm not sure I mean, I'm concerned about privacy. No doubt about it. Seems like these bases are pretty much covered under prohibited uses.

Thank you. Uh Jonathan, you want to hop up there or you want to talk from there?

I can certainly go from here. There we go. Um definitely happy to take a look at the agreement. From my understanding, Flock um kind of separates it out into the actual contract and then there's a subsequent um data sharing agreement that gets specifically Thank you. into the granularity of how you are going to share your data in if you are going to share your data. You can choose to totally private to your municipality and select specific near neighboring departments on a statewide or nationwide basis as well. Um, so we do have some control over that. On the block side of things, they comply with virtually every type of and the highest level of cyber security physical security standards when it does come to their data centers. They are regularly audited by independent third parties. Like the the likelihood of privacy being invaded from a a hack or compromise on the vendor side of things is very very low. Um, it's really more about, I think, the the local municipality and how they choose to treat it and handle the data sharing piece of it. Um, I think is what the chief was referring to the the biggest hot topics you hear about this. But we certainly as a municipality have the ability to customize that. Um, and happy to take a look at that.

Anyone from the audience? I have a hand. self. Oh, sorry. I just want to comment that. Yeah, you have to go up. Come on up, sir.

Go up. Read my notes. Uh, I just want to comment that you go over the Newport Bridge, there's cameras on you. You go everywhere you go now, there's cameras on you. And uh if this will help us uh improve the safety from our officers, I think it's a wise move. Uh I don't like the 3,000 a unit, but uh you know, if that's the going rate, I just I just hope that that we don't play a lot of money on the service itself after having the cameras. I think we should look at that and uh see what those photographs or that service is costing us. uh besides the unit being mounted. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sorry, Andrew. I didn't see your Can I Can I just Oh, sure. So, Sal mentions $3,000. Um we had an incident uh three or four months ago here in town where a town resident fell for a scam and was out over $16,000. So, if we had some information on a vehicle from that individual who came to pick up the $16,000 from our resident, I think the $3,000 was pretty well spent. So, the $3,000 the company owns the camera,

I believe. So, I'm not 100% sure and I'm not going to say yes, but I mean to me that would make sense and it would be some kind of warranty for them to replace the camera if it's damaged. So, the $3,000 is just I think it's a service fee. Service fee. It's a storage fee. That's an annual fee, correct? Yep. And that's going to come out of your budget.

Yes. Yes. We're in the last year of our bodywn camera hardware contract. Uh so the camera itself and what we have at the PD that all that hardware is the most expensive portion of that program. So, at the end, once we make one more payment in January of 2027, after that, we own all the equipment and we're just paying for um for the software and our evidence.com, which is how we utilize uh and share the videos. Um that will bring us down dramatically somewhere around 7 to 8,000. Uh so, in that equipment line item going forward, there could be room. Andrew, did you

Yeah, I mean I I agree with what Sal said. I mean it could be a really, you know, important tool I think in the the belt of our police and and that's just it. It is just a tool. It's not the end all be all. It's a piece of evidence,

but we've seen like to your example with the the alert that happened earlier today that was it can be used for something like that. It was instrumental in um help shooter during the Brown shoot providence. There's quite a few FL we've seen what it can help solve and help do in in the state. I think one of my concerns is I just want to see outlined who and for what reasons we'd be sharing information. So as a result what what happens is once you get on to that if you there's a trans uh transparency portal. So if you want to see an example of it go to Tibetan Police's website. They have a transparency portal. and click on that and it will tell you searches made by the police department. It won't give you the results.

It won't say that you know you we you searched for an investigative reason. That's that's what it gives you. It won't say okay you searched for an investigative reason and it gave you these answers that you're not privy to because it's part of an investigation. Like a federal agency comes here and says we're we're we want to use the information from your camera. They have to give a specific reason for what what they're looking for. They do and our policy states is that we're not sharing with them. Okay. All right.

This is this is the these are they're not this information isn't valuable to those federal agencies. Again, this is just a picture of the back of a car. This doesn't tell them who is inside driving. That's who they're looking for. And we're all talking about ICE. We know that they're they want people. They don't care about the back of a vehicle. So this information to them might not be as they they they have other avenues to do what they do and and that's their business. But this policy prohibits the sharing of that with CBP and ICE

then a question. Um, how many investigative matters in the last year would you guess that this technology would have assisted you in?

So, uh, within the last month, we arrested a a resident on several felonies. He's now um in regards to some B&E that we have in town. Uh right now and as a result of an investigation I don't know a week ago we have several open B&E cases all of the same MO copper piping being sto uh stolen flooded uh basement and damaged residences. Um so if if we could solve all of those I'd say anywhere between 10 to 15 different incidences. I'd rather not use it. I'd rather not have crimes to investigate to be perfectly honest with you. Well, let's let's face it, that that'd be a chief's dream that we don't have to deal with the crime uh and the need for this, but again, you can also use it. We have a large elderly population, and I to be honest with you, in the six plus years I've been here, we've never had an amber alert out of here or a silver alert, which I'm I'm waiting for one to happen, unfortunately. So, um and that would also help us in those situations as well.

Anyone else? I'll just make a suggestion. I think it'd be prudent to put this on the next agenda and hopefully secure a draft agreement for the solicitor's review. Ask a question. Sean, what needs to be done so that you can get the contract so that I can review it? I think I have to sign it. You're going to send it to me? I I mean, I can send it to you. They're going to send it to me, review it. I think they have to do their homework in regards to the location and what they're actually going to set up. Do you need a council action so that they'll send the contract out?

No, I don't think so. No, they've been harping me with emails about an answer. So, I think if I just say yes, they're going to send me whatever needs to be sent. Thank you, Chief, for answering your time. Thank you very much. I appreciate taking me early again. Got it. Thank you. Okay, if anyone's following along along, I'm going to jump back to old visit and I think I'm at four. It says update for homestead exemption and I have Victoria Talba, councelor Talbet written on here. Is that the right person?

I'm happy to provide an update. Um, so homestead exemption, our Senate Bill 2041 that was sponsored by Senator Dealma and House Bill 7047 sponsored by Representative Magga passed in concurrence on April 2nd and became effective April 10th, pending our vote at the Financial Town meeting. If it passes at FTM, we will need an ordinance to enact that exemption. While we still have a ways to go with this, I want to acknowledge and thank the people who helped to get us to this point. Starting with our legislators, Senator Lou De Palma and Representative Michelle McGod. They've been outstanding and helping us whenever we need it. Our ad hoc homestead committee, tax assessor Denise Cosgrove, budget committee chair Andy Rin, counselor Gary Mataronis, Jack Hair, and Jim Lockach. I also want to thank our town administrator, Ana Wallik, town solicitor Tony Desisto, and Jim Lockach, who came with me to attend the House committee meeting. And a bonus thank you to Jim Lock. I wish Jim was here because he's getting three thank yous on this, who single-handedly represented Little Compton at the Senate committee hearing while the rest of us were at a town council meeting. So, that's my update.

Thank you for the update. Um, I'm ready to move on from this. So, I can Oh, I'm sorry. Motion. Okay. Uh that we refer this to the solicitor to draft an ordinance to have ready should the exemption pass at FTM. I'll second it. Further discussion. Not seeing any. All in favor? I. Thank you, Victoria. Welcome.

Five. Memorand of understanding by and between the Rhode Island Department of Transportation in the town of Little Compton. Um I I will just say that uh I had a tour of the building uh last meeting. We wanted to bring a tour for the counselors that haven't been there. Myself and councelor Talbet went with Sal Marinosi for a good 30 45 minutes and looked at everything that needed to be done there. We had a great uh great talk and um I think we all agreed that we're going to have a due diligence and and work this thing through and we're very supportive of it. I know Andrew, I don't think you've been had a tour yet.

I have. and the administrator. You haven't had a tour yet, so you'll have to get on Sal's agenda to get on that tour. The very busy man. He just got named to another committee today. We should probably put Jonathan on that tour so he can look at the IT capacity for connectivity over there. Myself. Okay. Um, that's all I have to that's my update. Uh, does anyone else want to speak on it?

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm hoping to get this signed. This state's kind of waiting for us to sign it. So, little background, Sal and I have been working on this to get the building since last se uh last summer. We've had four Zoom meetings and three inerson meetings. There was concern about the septic system. We've had it pumped and now that seems to be working fine. there's a problem with the paint inside that it's stripping. So, that has to be um removed and then the interior has to be painted again. And for a safety issue, um it would be very good to get the maintenance trucks and personnel trucks away from the school and tennis courts. From a safety standpoint, I've always felt it was dangerous to have parents and children walking in front of the maintenance building and as the town maintenance and as the town and maintenance department have grown, it has required more equipment to be more responsive to town needs. Therefore, they need a much bigger building to store the ad equipment and one that is self centrally located. Financially, the state is crying $2,000 per year for a lease for 5 years, which can be renewed. And out of that $2,000, they're going to pay for the electricity and heat for the building. So, if we go back a few years when the town borrowed $2 million to rehab the town hall, the maintenance building and the parking behind the ma maintenance building, $600,000 was earmarked. Um, for a new maintenance building and the transfer station, probably now that would be $800,000. Obviously, that didn't happen. I wouldn't guess that it will happen anytime soon.

And all the while, the maintenance department is growing bigger and getting more cramped for space. For $2,000 a year and maybe 25 to $40,000 for a quick rehab, we can give them the space need. So my my feeling is we're going to get a building for practically nothing. You got to put a little bit of work in it to get it going, but I'd rather spend $50,000 to get the building that the maintenance department needs with they're going to give us all four bays. Now, originally, they were only going to give us two. I'd rather get that done even if it's $50,000 versus spending $800,000 on a new building at the transfer station. And lastly, and hopefully we can do a quick rehab of the room in front of the maintenance building and clean up the outside so we can finally get a gathering place for the seniors and perhaps some office space for the director of social services and the new HR person. The back half can be updated when when we decide what it can be used for. This is a winwinwin for the town and I feel we must proceed on this. I feel if this isn't approved at this time, then it's going to probably set back these two projects, the senior gathering place and a building for the town maintenance department, which we decided was needed four years ago, probably going to set it back to 10 years. So, I would like, and I think anybody can go in there and visit it. All the councils except for Andrew's visited it. I'd like to um make a motion the town council president signs this and we go forward with it so we can start getting whatever we need to do over there done so we can get an maintenance department over there.

I have a motion on the table. I have a second. I'll second that motion.

We're in discussion now. Um the um septic system uh is a cesspool uh and not just so everyone knows it's not a tank. Um there's still um I I support the project. I think I've said that publicly here many times. Um I think it's a great idea. I looked at the building some 10 12 years ago for recreation. So I think we need to use that building. Um we have a a lead paint issue there. Obviously if anyone walks in there it's everywhere. Everywhere. every nook and cranny. It's peeled. It's crazy. And I think Sal told me he had an estimate an estimate of $30,000 for that, which I think is a really good estimate. Um there's still a water test to be done. There's salt issues there. Um and we haven't had a fire inspection of it yet either, so we don't know what that entails. So I I am um hesitant to support it. Now uh if you look at theou you'll see number two town agrees to improve the premises including but not limited to the office space kitchen break area mezzanine loft bathrooms and at their own expense. All improvements shall be completed within 6 months. So as soon as the town president signed that you go to section 20 here or number 20 and number 20 says the terms of this agreement shall become effective on the date on which right out executes this agreement. So the clock will start ticking. Um so I would like to see a scope and how much money we're going to spend on on the things that I've mentioned. We haven't even got our fire guy in there to look at it. Um we haven't had our water test back. Um, so and I support this. Let's try to get it done as quick as we can and get it on another agenda. That would be my feeling.

So I don't know how much I guess we can get an estimate to for paint removal, but I don't know how much we want to do. We don't have a signed contract after we do it. You know, the state may come down and say, "Oh, thank you for rehabbing this building for us. have a sign theouous. I'm not proposing on doing anything uh until um we have some estimates or or go I would say school. Does number two require us to do work to all areas in the building?

How I read it? It says all improvements shall be completed six months. But we want to speak to improve the premises including but not limited to the office space, kitchen, break room, mezzanine loft and bathrooms. So you're stuck on not limited to Well, I'm I'm stuck on agree to improve premises including Yeah.

It doesn't exclude the same. Do we have to improve the entire building and what kind of work are are they expecting us to do in there? I think it's a little fuzzy enough, but I will ask the I'm so I'm going to get to you next. We want to get to you. The solicitor uh has reviewed this talked with the uh uh solicitor or the um the legal up at Ry dot and what do you have to report to us? Well, I'm I'm going to say this uh um at least from my perspective and I think the uh ride out lawyer too. Number two is deliberately vague and there's no schedule of what um absolutely h positively has to be done for the improvements.

I did that deliberately because it gives the town some flexibility. Uh and frankly the uh DOT lawyer uh represented to me that his clients had said they here's their thing. Once theou is entered into then it's going to be the towns. They don't want to have to worry about anything. So to the extent that there's issues that need to be taken care of it will be the town's responsibility to do.

So I'd like to just uh pick up on um uh President McHugh's comment about scope. I think I'd feel better if we had a more defined scope. I understand your rationale for wanting to keep it big. So, we've got some flexibility, but from our standpoint of having to uh vote on this and and and uh you know, dedicate town funds uh to a project, it would be great to have a scope to better understand what it is, some estimates for what the cost is, and then a plan for how to pay for it. This sounds like a capital project. Um we don't have much in the way of capital um resources. We have some competing things. I know the um common review committee is looking at the oddfellows and considering project over there to come back to us with a recommendation on um but Anya, maybe if you could speak to the capital um resources that we have to hit. I I think we have to be very conservative,

careful. Yes. Um I have no idea what the costs are associated with this project. Councelor Matona said sounds like a good idea and a good deal, but um have no idea what the scope or cost of the improvements is. And yes, we I mean we had no capital budget last year. We have a limited one this year. I'm going to talk to you about a proposal for ending some of that uh on paving and um yeah there's not

so we did speak to the gentleman John Igliozi and the other uh people from RODT and we did tell them that we're in a financial bind right now and that as we as funds came available we would do what was required and I should both separate up. Well, first of all, Councilman Matteronus wasn't here for the last couple of weeks and we've been going back and forth and working on this. I uh have been working with the state and on the issues of the building. Um the state's coming back into the building. They have to clean out some material that's in there. We don't have a schedule on that yet. There's some waste oil in there. There's some material in there that they're going to remove. They took a compressor out of the building they weren't supposed to. I got that back today. All right. I had sent them a bar chart, a simple bar chart that they had requested and a list that they had requested of we what we would do and when we would do it. I assumed they would have that with the agreement. It wasn't I didn't know the agreement came in yet. I had requested that we don't do anything until we revisit the agreement and the items that had to be done and when they would be done because in my letter to them I stated that uh funds were limited and because of that it would take a year on some of the things

to get accomplished. That's what was said to Mr. Leozi and that's what was said to the attorney. Now, if they don't want to honor that, they at least have to give us the time that we require to do whatever we want to do in the building without the sixmonth situation on us. That way, we can say, "All right, we're going to do this, this, this, and this, and do the things that are necessary to occupy the building and then do other things as we see fit." There were things that were necessary. Those were on the bar chart in the beginning, but the rest was stretched over seven and eight months and that that was specific in the bar chart. So it's my understanding of what we have to do now and what I was proceeding with is get a a good schedule of what has to be done a cost for those prepared present it to the council. Okay. I'm I'm working with the state already to remove everything that's in the building. Perhaps we'll have everything out of there in the next two to three weeks. Okay. And then put a schedule together, a CPM schedule, so we know when the painter is coming in, when this I'm not even sure the painter has to come in first before we go in the building. Just because the the uh the paint chips be have been determined to have lead in it doesn't mean that they're going to be fryable inside the building. because we're only going to use that for our equipment. So, I want to put this together first before we go off on a deep end on this. And and uh and if if we get this approved the next

meeting or the meeting after that, I'm good. But at least we do have something from the state. But I would like to talk to Mr. Gozi again and have you and I talk to him, Mr. Cisco. because I was very specific with him even when he was on the site.

Would it be persuasive uh to the state were we to respond that the council voted as follows and give them a sense of what are only reasonable requests. We're we're presenting to the full council the fact that want to do this. We believe it's the right thing for all the reasons that have been cited. And you have a strategy. it sounds like or the specific events that have to happen in the building. The fact that that we don't yet know what those costs are and the fact that we don't want to be limited to this all has to be done in six months otherwise we'll be back to take our keys. And I'm not suggesting that's that's the plan by any means. It's just that I think to protect our uh ability to re to respond to them, you ought to be careful with it. If I were them, I'd be looking for so what did the council say?

And I think if there is broad consensus on the council of the viability of this in um as an exception to or in contrast to uh spending nearly a million dollars on a building at the transfer station that we haven't yet cited and we don't have any of that done. Th this perhaps is something that we can respond to quickly and say, "So, where are these funds and how are we going to pay for it?"

I I I think you you make a good point. Perhaps we could say something in a vote that the request I made of the Bodshot and the letter should be considered on the on the on the contract so that the council can move forward because those were important to us when I spoke to him.

I'm going to withdraw my motion. Make another motion. I'd like to move that we get a little more information on what's going to be required to rehab this building and put salsa allow cell to keep contact with the state of Rhode Island RI do and move this forward until we have enough information to make an informed decision about what the cost is going to be. I just add the solicitor to that as solicitor. I'll see a second. Further discussion. I see a hand.

Could I request that at least one or the other of town administrator or town finance director be included in those discussions as well? So we wallet be included in the discussion. I'll second that. And I would like Anya and both uh Andrew take a walk through there to see what we're talking about so you'll be aware of what we're discussing. Thank you. Thank you all. Heather still got a vote on that. Heather, what do you you got something there? You got a motion? You good with it? Yes. All in favor? I

Thank you. A new business one letter from police chief reigns to offer a full-time dispatch submission to current part-time dispatcher Lily Dobbish to begin Friday, April 26, 2026 with a six-month probationary period ending Friday, October 23, 2026. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. Westman Town Administrator solicited bids for a 2026 road paving solicitor. It's all yours. Oh, I'm sorry. David.

Thank you for catching me.

Uh, so there's a memo in your packet under new business 2, uh, in which I outline what I'm requesting. Um but to be brief in a summary, um I'm seeking to solicit uh proposals for paving work to potentially be completed on town roads during the upcoming season. um they would be solicited subject to the availability of funds because these are funds that uh in large part are proposed in the FY27 budget which is still uh to be approved by financial town meeting. Um but I'd like to get the bids in place so that we know uh what our prices are and can make decisions quickly and get the work done quickly if it is approved. Um, I asked Beta to update their assessment of which roads needed work most urgently. I also consulted with Ted Bodington, um, head of DPW. Um, and what we're proposing is that we, uh, attack Swamp Road and at least some portion of Long Highway. Uh the way I would solicit the bids, I would ask for bids on both the entirety of Long Highway and the portion that needs the most uh attention right now. So we would have two different scenarios potentially um for the work that would be done and those would be separable. So if we exhausted our budget on one of the projects, we could make decisions about whether we're uh what we're doing immediately. Um, this is work that would be done under the uh Rhode Island Roads. I think that's what they're calling it now. They keep changing the name of the program, but that's the program that I've talked with you about before. State pays a third of the cost of the projects and we pay 2/3. Um, so if we uh if we used all

that John McName and I have proposed to spend on this, we would spend uh 275,000 of town funds and the state would pay the remainder for a total project cost potentially of 411,000.

So I I'd like to make a comment on this. Historically, what we've done when budget season comes up is we've put $250,000 aside for the current budget and then $250,000 for the next budget cycle. And we would combine them so we could use $500,000 of road work because the mobilization to get these trucks down here and everything else is the main cost of everything. So, if we do it that way and don't spend any money on the roads this year, but hold the money in the fund and combine it with next year, we'll have uh $550,000 of our funds and a total of $822 800 $8,220,000 to spend. That would give us a much broader scope of roads to cover. And it seems to me everybody's talking about the general fund being wiped out for use to try to keep the uh taxes low. And I'm not sure and it escapes me how I have voted for a million $300,000 for paving last year. I don't know how the hell that got got done because we never spent more than more than $250,000 a year for road paving and we would combine it in two years to spend 500 and then one year we spend a million3. So to to me that seems like that's where the money seemed to go to. So, and I could be totally wrong and I could be totally off base, but historically we

combined two years of uh road paving budget into one so we could do a longer uh part of whatever road we were going to do cuz like I said, the mobilization is the most expensive part of this job. Anyone else? Do we have a motion on the table? Um, no. I'm going to where are we here? I'll make a motion to proceed uh with the town administrator to solicit bids for 2026 road paving. Second, but has a comment. Yep. Go ahead. We have a second. We're in discussion.

Okay. Just one comment. Um, there is a portion, and I'm sorry I can't tell you right now, but I could tell you before we make before you make a decision on whether to spend this money. Um, there is a portion that we would lose if we didn't do some paving in the 2026 season. There's a portion of the state money that will expire at the end of October, I believe it is. So, I should bring that figure back to you before you make a final decision. Do you want to hold off on this vote then? Is that what you're telling me? because it's allowing me to get prices essentially. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Nay. And will you the second? Yeah.

Yeah. I have uh three to approve. Thank you. Request from beach commission for town council to write a letter to the finance committee requesting an exemption to the sales tax on short-term parking. We have that resolution. It's come on the screen. It's going to come on the screen. Yep. Yep.

Thank you. There there are um two sections of the general laws which are in the first whereas clause which requires that um if a fee is collected for parking spaces and that includes parking spaces at municipal beaches that um the collector has to has has to all also collect the sales tax on that. And um this resolution would exempt town of Little Compton. Now I want to make sure that the only public beach where a fee is collected for for parking is Southshore Beach. Is that correct? Okay. This would exempt the town of Little Compton, those two sections of the general law, from collecting that fee that I'm sorry, from collecting the sales tax

on that the sales tax on that fee, right? So, this is quite a stir on the state right now. Middletown is involved in this. Uh they have resolution. Yeah. What a pain in the neck that that that would be for your your your people. Yeah. So, I appreciate uh you doing that resolution for the for the council. I'm happy to make a a motion to uh send that uh resolution out. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I for request from American Legion Post 37 for permission to hold their annual Memorial Day parade on the comments 25th. Motion to approve. Second. Favor. I

I received email of resignation from Claudia McNeel effective April 3rd, 2026 from the Troder Review. I have council Talbot written on here.

I just wanted to take a moment to take note of this. I thought this letter was a tough one to receive. Um I'm sure many of you know Mrs. McNeel. She's a beloved member of our community and um this letter indicates that she is um resigning from the charter review commission because she can't afford to live in Little Compton anymore and she will be leaving town. Um so I just wanted to say that she's a great person. We're really losing somebody who has given back to our community in countless ways and acts of service to our town. um and highlight that this puts a real name and a real face on our housing crisis and its impact on our community and should be greatly missed. Another one lost.

Thank you. Six. Post vacancy of unexpired two-year term ending January 23rd, 2027 and charter review commission. I know I don't have considered a vote here. It's all right. You okay with that, Heather? And solicitor? Yes. Heather, did we have letters uh from the first go around? Um that we found someone. It was just po Oh, you mean older letters? Yeah. That Yes. And their name? They had two. We had two uh Ed Bowen and Rita Kenahan, right? And Ed Bowen said that he would do it if Rita didn't want to. And Rita said she'd be more than happy to do it. It's

a good tag team we got going on here right now. So, I am going to take a chance here and not have an an OMV violation because it says not to consider the vote. I'm going to try it, Heather. Oh, actually, actually, if I may go ahead. In number six, uh, post is used as a verb. Oh, and it's an action verb. All right. It's an action verb. I like it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make a uh I'm going to make a motion to appoint Rita Kenahan to the Charter Review Commission. Do I have a second? Second. Further discussion? Not seeing any. All in favor? I.

I. Thank you. Request from town clerk to hire Teresa E. Riley for the vacant office clerk position in her office effect Monday, May 4th, 2026. Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve. Second. Further discussion? Not seeing any. All in favor? I. Thank you. You. We've done eight. We'll go to nine. Request from emergency manager director Richard Petran seeking permission to solicit proposals from qualified consulting firms provide design permitting and related professional service and improve fire suppression wars reliability the town commons and adjacent areas. Motion to approve second. All in favor?

I thank you. This town council sitting as a board of licensed commissioners want to acknowledge receipt of an application for transfer of the stock and a class BVL retail license from Commons Lunch Inc. DBA Commons launch to LC's on the commons LLC DBA LC's on the commons for premises located at 48 Commons in a little comp set application has been advertised for a hearing May 21st 2026 7 p.m. I'm going to ask a question and I think I know the answer of clerk have you received an application for this? Yes, I have. You have. So I think what I have to do is vote to acknowledge this application. Yes. Receipt of the receive the application.

To acknowledge receipt of acknowledge receipt of this application exists that it exists. Keep going Bob. He likes he likes to get on. That's my motion. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? You thank you for your help, Mr. Motion. was appreciated. Consent agenda. I'll uh move the consent agenda as written, but I would like to pull one uh one of the uh consent items. Sure.

Uh so I'll move that we uh move the consent forward except for uh let us break second. All here. I So, I think we all know that we've been getting a lot of Harper requests. I have no problem with that. But it's getting to the point where the town clerk is really getting bogged down. Is that correct with Opera request? That is correct.

Also, our solicitor and his staff is getting bogged down. Just to be clear, the term the acronym is APA access public records which is different from ARPA which is the American program authorities. It's I stay corrected. No, I'm not trying to correct. I'm just saying that uh use of such terms is deliberate in my view and uh on the part of those who create them. So thank you again. Mr. gotten in 31 APA requests this year so far. 31. 31. How does that stack up against your other municipalities? Um, we're the top of the list.

Yeah, it's more than double my other uh more than double the other two communities combined.

And by the way, uh as Heather can tell you, uh these have been not uh simple requests. They've been requests for in in some instances thousands of emails. So what this this is from the town of exit and then at the end it says now therefore it be resolved that the exit town council hereby opposes Senate Bill 2389 house bill 7305 and would ask the legislature to reject these amendments in their entirety. What what the state is trying to do is make these appro requests much more ownorous for all the towns. Why? I have no idea. Is that correct, solicitor?

That's correct. Yes. So I would like to have a our own resolution to send up to the legislature and it can be drafted similar to this just to put in little competent. So that would be my motion. Happy to make that resolution. I'll second it. All in favor? I thank you. Thanks. payment of bills to

pay bills as prescribed to us. And I would like to say the amount of these bills is tremendously satisfying to me. 21,000 uh $30 bill which just generally up to 40 or 50,000 that's for the month of half half half the month of April. So I'll second all favor. I I'll take a uh motion to adjurnn. So move in favor. Thank you V.