Residents of Johnston encounter a Catch-22 when they want to speak at a duly advertised public meeting of a town governmental board.
Those who address a public body, like the Town Council, are urged to speak on issues included on that meeting’s agenda.
Residents, however, need to file a request with the town clerk to be included on the agenda, before that specific agenda is available for public consumption.
Take next week’s Town Council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10, for example.
Monday is Victory Day in Rhode Island, a state holiday. Town Council meetings are typically held on Mondays, but next week the meeting has been moved to Tuesday. The Johnston School Committee will be holding its monthly meeting at the same time, on the same day.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 4, the agenda for the Town Council meeting had yet to be finalized, but the deadline was about to expire for residents who would like to be heard at the meeting.
Johnston Town Clerk Vincent P. Baccari Jr. said Wednesday afternoon that Town Council agendas are typically finalized by the end of the business day on Thursdays, and filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
Requests to address the Town Council, however, must be submitted prior to the posting of the agenda.
“Requests must be received five days before the date of the meeting,” Baccari said. “Though sometimes you run into a holiday situation, and we need to post the meeting 48 hours before the meeting, not including holidays and weekends.”
Baccari said that the deadline to file a request to be heard at the Aug. 10 meeting was 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 4.
“It all depends, if something is a public hearing, everybody gets to talk,” Baccari said. “If it’s not a public hearing, it’s basically the public watching the council do their business.”
Longstanding Town Council rules dictate who gets to speak, on what topics, for how long.
“The council rules have all the guidelines for this type of request,” Baccari said, as he reviewed a written copy of the rules. “The council has a specific set of rules governing public comment. [Public commenters] have three minutes for each topic; a maximum of six topics shall be allowed on each agenda.”
Residents need to file requests to be included on the agenda, in writing with the town clerk, by filling out a special form.
Amy Dixon, a town resident and realtor, filed a request to be heard at next week’s Town Council meeting.
Dixon found herself with a long list of questions following the June 20 Johnston Planning Board meeting where the preliminary plan for “Project Schooner” was given unanimous approval.
“Project Schooner” refers to a six-story retail distribution facility proposed for construction near the intersection of routes 6 and 295.
The gigantic building will have a ground floor area of approximately 823,522 square feet, and a total area of approximately 3,864,972 square feet.
Several town officials, under condition of anonymity, have confirmed that the distribution operation will be run by online retail juggernaut Amazon.
In public, however, no town officials have been willing to go on the record linking the proposal to Amazon.
“I’m looking for complete reports pursuant to Project Schooner, including but not limited to its economic impact on the town, i.e. proposed tax structures, traffic studies and environmental impact studies,” Dixon said, summarizing her filed request to address Town Council next week.
“Who hired these consultants?” she asked. “What developer incentives have been offered to the town? Are there additional town developments or improvements proposed by the developer as related to this project? Are they doing something with schools? What are they doing with schools? Are they doing something to the infrastructure? What are they doing for the infrastructure?”
Dixon has been researching similar Amazon projects in other states, and found a story out of Kansas detailing the company’s decision to abandon a similar facility as the one proposed for construction in Johnston.
In 2014, The Wichita Eagle published a report following Amazon’s announcement that it would close a giant distribution warehouse near Coffeyville, Kansas, “after turning down a multimillion-dollar incentive package to stay.”
Dixon discovered four separate reports of Amazon vacating distribution centers they opened in rural communities across the country.
“What are the reassurances we have that Amazon won’t do the same to us?” Dixon asked. “And if you were proud of this project, you’d be proud to say it was ‘Amazon.’ No?”
Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena said last week that he wants to assure residents that the deal with the company behind “Project Schooner” (he won’t say whether the company is Amazon) will be “very very lucrative for the town.”
“The mayor has had a chance to review and tweak and negotiate this project,” Dixon said Wednesday. “You don’t put a project like this down in a few weeks. Why is the public not afforded more time to learn the details and comment?”
Polisena said he’s waiting on a packet of documents from Bluewater Property Group, the firm behind the project. Once he receives the documents, which will detail the town’s agreement with the company, he plans to send them to the town’s attorneys for review.
Shortly after legal counsel reviews the documents, Polisena plans to present the proposal to Town Council in public session, and have a vote following the presentation.
He said the process could move quickly, elapsing in as little as 48 hours, the time required by the state to publicly advertise a public meeting.
Polisena insists public dissent at next week’s Town Council meeting, on an issue that will likely not be included on the meeting’s agenda, is inappropriate.
“First of all, I can tell you that Schooner is not on the agenda,” Polisena said Wednesday. “This administration and these boards have been transparent since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here for 15 years. There’s no cloak and dagger.”
There are no plans to hold a public hearing on “Project Schooner,” which would require several weeks of public advertising.
Polisena’s son, Town Council Vice President Joseph Polisena Jr., said he has no problem with residents speaking in public session before Town Council at next week’s meeting.
“You have to give them time,” Polisena Jr. said Wednesday. “Absolutely. Everybody that wants to speak about it, whether they are for or against it, they need the opportunity to be heard.”
Polisena Jr. agreed that “Project Schooner” would most likely not be on next week’s agenda, though the agenda was not available by press-time.
“I don’t think it’s going to be on the agenda,” he said. “But everybody that wants to speak on it will.”
Polisena Jr. said he would like to give the public more time to attend a public meeting on “Project Schooner” than the 48 hours suggested by the mayor last week.
“I would want at least one week’s notice,” Polisena Jr. said. “We encourage everybody to come. We want as many people as possible to offer input. It’s their town.”
Polisena Jr. said Town Council “will obviously do a thorough review of any agreement that comes before us.”
The public will learn the details as Town Council is informed.
“They can review it in real time with us,” Polisena Jr. said. “Once we get it, we will talk about every detail of the agreement; we will break it down for the town, break it down in real time. Procedurally, we’ll review it just like any item. And there will be public comment on it. They’ll review it with us, and they’ll have an opportunity for public comment at that meeting when we’re doing the review.”
Dixon insists she neither opposes nor supports the Amazon project. She just has too many unanswered questions, and the process is moving very quickly.
“I just need to know what the deal is,” she said. “For the size of our town, around 30,000 residents … How much can one small town take?”
Dixon feels like there has been a gross lack of public information regarding the negotiations surrounding Project Schooner.
“Even if they do come in, they can be a friendly neighbor,” Dixon said. “I don’t know if that will happen, because no one will tell me. Everyone I call either cannot or will not share it.”
Dixon has resided in Johnston for the past 17 years.
“Silly me, I thought the people we elected would have our backs and include us in the conversation,” Dixon said. “Either pay attention and get involved or move; those are my options. But I believe in my town. That’s why I want to stay here.”
Dixon said she has decided to take a stand, hoping she’ll successfully force more information to the surface.
“I just see what the potential is in this town,” she said. “I understand why people say ‘I can’t’ and leave. I don’t want to do that.”
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