EP Councilwoman Chrissy Rossi Aims to Oust Paul Lemont

By Bob Rodericks

East Providence Ward 4 City Councilwoman, Chrissy Rossi has placed an item on the Tuesday April 1st council agenda which seeks the removal of Interim City Manager, Paul Lemont. Rossi has not been happy with the resolution of certain matters in city government and in particular the situation between the Chief of Police and the East Providence Police Union.

At the March 18th meeting the council took up the issue of appointing a permanent city manager. Former Manager Paul Lemont has been 'acting city manager' for some 4 months. The issue was placed on the March agenda by Chrissy Rossi. By a 3-2 split vote, the council agreed to start a new search and hire a permanent manager. "The time has come to move on this," said Rossi. Mayor James Briden tried to dissuade his colleagues. Fearing a perception that the council was moving on this on the heels of a difficult meeting over police issues, he recommended waiting a bit. "Let's put it off, I don't like the timing," said Briden. Originally, upon the firing of Graczykowski, Briden was the only council member who wanted to advertise right away for a new manager.

There were at least three votes in March to begin searching for a permanent manager. It is uncertain if enough votes exist tomorrow night to oust Paul LeMont during this search. The council hasn't actually announced a search process yet.

During the last meeting, Lemont addressed some of the issues the council was discussing: "I was brought (back) here to straighten out this city, in November 2013," said Lemont. "You had a budget commission here, a deficit, a city not running well, fire department construction problems and a police department in turmoil," said Lemont. "I put the brakes on things. There is litigation with police, I won't discuss it," he added.

Tomorrow evening's meeting "could be an explosive one," is how one city official described the night. The April 1st docket can be seen at: http://clerkshq.com/default.ashx?ClientSite=EastProvidence-ri&Mode=getdocument&id=AGENDA