The Warwick City Council voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance requiring Council members to receive a copy of tentative agreements between the Mayor and a collective bargaining union at least 14 days before ratification. 

The ordinance drafted by Ward 5 City Councilman Ed Ladouceur got a 9-0 vote during the Dec.20 Council meeting. Mayor Frank Picozzi said that was supportive of the ordinance.

Ladouceur explained that while the council had plenty of time to review the latest contracts which were for the Warwick Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 and Local 1651 of RI Council 94 he said “that hasn’t always been the case.”

“Kudos to the Council President for affording us that time as well as the Mayor for getting the information to the Council,” Ladouceur said. 

Ladourceur said the council has obtained proposed contracts days before a scheduled vote and wants to make sure city councilors are guaranteed the time needed to review tentative agreements. When the Council receives the contracts to ratify the contract has already been agreed on between the Mayor and that particular union.

“It just makes sense to me that particularly for the benefit of the members of the Council that comes after us that we put it in stone,” Ladouceur said. 

Ward 2 City Councilman Jeremy Rix said he agreed with the intent of the legislation.

“I think that it really is a best practice as demonstrated by this last round of contract ratifications that when we have a sufficient period of time to review the contract when its not a matter of being presented with it just a few days ahead of time, that's a more transparent process, '' Rix said. “It's a better review process and when we have that better process in place then questions get answered beforehand instead of potential last minute issues coming up at the meeting itself.”

He said that he wasn’t sure if a full 30 days was necessary and wanted to hear from the rest of the Council to see if they thought a different time period would be sufficient. 

Council President Steve McAllister said when he first discussed the ordinance with Ladouceur  the proposal was for 60 days which he said he wasn’t comfortable with. He said that he was okay with it being 30 days but would also be okay with it being at least 14 days to give the Council flexibility because their meetings are approximately every 14 days. 

He noted he felt that they don’t have as much pressure to have contracts signed right away because of the new “evergreen” laws which extend any current contracts until a new one in signed. 

Ward 3 Councilman Tim Howe, said he is glad that McAllister and Ladouceur were able to discuss it and come to a compromise on the proposal. 

However, when he first saw the proposed ordinance he thought it was intended to be a “hand holding” ordinance for him and others on the Council in 2019 who were accused of voting on the firefighters contract without fully understanding it. 

He said in that case they had the contract for at least 30 days and said, “there was a great effort to stall it.”

“I would not vote on a contract that I had in my hands for one day, I would not vote on a contract that I had in my hands for two days. I would want the time, the due diligence,” Howe said. 

Howe said that he thinks it’s crucial that they have the time needed to review contracts. 

“I would say shame on any Administration that presents to this honorable body a contract that has only one or two days before it needs to be ratified,” Howe said. 

“There were no insults meant for anyone on the Council now or yesterday or certainly to none of the bargaining groups or the Administration,” Ladouceur said. 

Ladouceur said that he thought it should be 30 days but said he would be willing to make it at least 14 days if that was the consensus of the rest of the Council. 

Ward 8 Councilman Anthony Sinapi who chairs the Ordinance Committee said that he thought that at least 14 days made sense. He also agreed with Rix who serves on the Committee that they should amend the language to read “at least 14 days prior to ratification of a collective bargaining agreement by the city council, the mayor shall submit to each member of the city council the contract, fiscal note, documentation  required or intended to be presented as part of the ratification process.”

He said that the original language stating “any other related documentation,” could be open ended and drag on the process longer if a city councilor felt they weren’t given all of the “any other related documentation,” which wasn’t defined. 

Ward 6 City Councilman Donna Travis who has been on the Council the longest pointed out that when she was first elected they didn’t even ratify the contracts. They were negotiated between the Mayor and the unions like they are now but that was the end of the process. 

She said that she feels that it is good they changed the process. 

“We’ve come a long way,” Travis said.