The East Providence City Council met on March 17, 2026, with all five members present. The meeting covered a range of topics including approval of a reorganized police contract, recognitions, public comments on development projects, discussion of inclusionary zoning, updates on infrastructure and public safety, and several proclamations.
Good evening. We'll call the meeting of March seventeenth, twenty twenty six to order for the East Providence uh City Council. Um Madam Clerk, could you please call the role of the council? Councilman Fogerty. Councilman Lawson? Here. Council Vice President Regal. Yeah. Councilwoman Sousa. Yeah. Council President Rodericks. Here, the records show that um attendance is all five members present. And please rise for the pledge. Thank you. Happy St. Patrick Stato, everyone. Madam Clerk, could you please begin the reading of the agenda? Number two, executive session. The City Council of East Providence may meet in executive session pursuant to the Wood Island General Laws. Yes. No, we're not. We are we're staying here. I just want to have the solicitor explain it. Um as you know, uh back on January twenty-seventh, twenty twenty-six the this council approved all the tentative agreements that were subject uh to the bargaining and changes within the contract over the last uh since January twenty-seventh, uh the HR department, myself, and the union and the coun and the uh president excuse me, and the chief of police have been working diligently to incorporate those changes and HR decided that the contract was so poorly organized that he basically wanted to uh reorganize it and um and and re um and put headings where they weren't headings before. So um no substantive changes are in this document other than that. It's a much easier to administer, and hopefully it's a much easier to execute. So and we actually cut down by about a third of the pages by changing the fund. So it's a smaller, it's a smaller contract, and hopefully it's a more readable and more understandable contract, but there are no substantive changes to it um other than what you have already approved on that date on January twenty-seventh, twenty twenty-six. Thank you. Thank you. And the the tentative agreement has been approved by both the union, the council previously. Yes, I make a motion to accept the contract. Motion by Council Vice President Rigo to accept the contract and seconded by Councilman Lawson. All in favor? Aye. Are there any opposed? The ayes have it. Five zero. Number four, proclamation and presentation. Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, I'm going to defer to Councilman Lawson to introduce some special guests that we have with us this evening. All right, how's everybody doing? Could I please ask Paul Morse, Donnie Senna, and Scotty Santos to come forward, please. So we're honoring these gentlemen because recently the Rhode Island Hip Hop Hall of Fame had its inaugural class. And two of these gentlemen were among the inductees. And one was the um creator behind making it a reality. Um years ago, I was asked to start Knott's council, and I got this firm belief that the city of East Providence can utilize the arts as an economic driver, has a way to brand this city to make it an amazing place to live. It already is, but there's so much more. So when I saw this was happening, I thought it would be a good idea to bring them forward, honor them for what they did, and also bring some awareness that you know we do very well in the city with the rocking blues, you know. But there's many other forms of music that are amazing and awesome.