City Council's POWER GRAB

Planning director resigns after salary threatened by City Council

By RUSS OLIVO
rolivo@woonsocketcall.com
WOONSOCKET “ Two days after a member of the City Council threatened him with a no-confidence vote and to void his budgeted salary, longtime Planning Director Joel D. Mathews has tendered his resignation.

Citing the "vindictive personal attacks" of recent days, Mathews notified Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt that he will stay on until Feb. 8.
"This will bring to a close my 45 years of employment with the City, working for seven Mayors during that period, and parts of the past five years working under your visionary leadership," Mathews wrote. "Unfortunately I am currently unable to comprehend the vindictive personal attacks that have been leveled against me these past few days...I have decided to leave now and not be part of any further controversy or questions about my integrity, which I have valued greatly."
The letter continues, "I have decided that at age 72, it is simply time to call it quits and move on without any further delay."
The resignation is the culmination of a feud with the council that began over two weeks ago, when Mathews excoriated the panel for introducing Ordinance 19-0-05, a measure that would essentially give the council veto power over the Zoning Board of Review in state, local and federal projects. The measure, championed largely by Councilman James Cournoyer, has been portrayed by the council as a mere expansion of the council's existing authority, but Mathews openly criticized it as an illegal "power grab" during a meeting on Jan. 7.
"I find this to be the most onerous piece of legislation I've seen submitted" in all the time he's worked for the city, Mathews told the panel. "All I'm saying is I feel very seriously the City Council is trying to make a power grab and take away from the Zoning Board of Review...their power to exercise independent judgment over issues that come before them and I feel it's very inappropriate.
Responding on Tuesday, Councilman Cournoyer questioned Mathews' professionalism and objectivity, promising to ask the council to vote on a resolution of no confidence in Mathews in two weeks. Depending on the outcome, Cournoyer said, he would introduce another measure to strip the account for Mathews' $71,298 a year salary to just $1.
Cournoyer was particularly concerned that Mathews spoke on Jan. 7 during a portion of the meeting known as citizens good and welfare, in effect shedding his role as an administration official for the city. Cournoyer said he took the move as an indication that Mathews, in his administrative role, was providing the council with skewed advice designed mainly to satisfy his boss" Baldelli-Hunt.
"That's a serious problem," said Cournoyer. "That confers to me exactly what I've been concerned about for some time with Mr. Mathews. From my perspective what the City Council and this city, and what the mayor wants and what everybody else needs is a planning director that is professional, that gives us all and I'm emphasizing the word all "objective, professional advice and comments."
But Mathews said Thursday the only reason he spoke to the council under good and welfare was that he hadn't yet gotten the OK to address the ordinance on behalf of the administration. Nevertheless, he had such strong feelings about it he felt compelled to speak out.
"I was not prepared to speak on behalf of the administration," he said. "I had not spoken to the mayor about it."
Despite Cournoyer's insistence that the ordinance is a lawful expansion of the council's powers, Mathews is certain the assertion is untrue. Mathews said the Zoning Ordinance provides the council with limited veto power over projects in public recreational lands, but otherwise the zoning board's autonomy is encoded in state enabling legislation.
This is not the first time Mathews has retired, but he says it's his last. He's retired twice before during the last several years, only to suspend his pension benefits and return to work. He has been on duty as City Hall since December 2017 as successor to the late Planning Director N. David Bouley, who died as a result of pancreatic cancer the previous March.
A former city resident who now lives in Sutton, Mass., Mathews briefly recapped his career with the planning department in his letter of resignation. Except for a couple of brief breaks, he had worked for the city since 1972. During that period, he said, he'd been in charge of the design, construction and implementation of numerous buildings, parks and other projects worth more than $125 million in all.