Warwick City Council Finance Committee & Full Council Meeting – March 9, 2026
Warwick City Council Finance Committee & Full Council Meeting – March 9, 2026
This meeting included the Finance Committee and the full City Council, covering numerous bids, contracts, and policy items. Key discussions focused on ammunition procurement, a drone program, a truck purchase, and a reconsideration of a health insurance contract. The meeting lasted from approximately 20:51 to 22:34 (with committees later).
Consent Calendar
- PCR 25-26 / 26-26 / 27-26: Multiple bid packages and abatements were approved favorably, with several items removed for separate discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Robert Cushman (Ward 1): Criticized the council's handling of health insurance bidding, arguing that a 2021 contract was extended without competitive bidding, violating city ordinance 2.20. Urged the council to reconsider and go out for bid.
- Rob Cody (Ward 7): Raised concerns about employee conduct, citing a DPW employee's YouTube video detailing drug use on the job, a pending $75 million lawsuit against the city for a police incident, and lack of inventory controls. Urged fiscal restraint and better training.
Discussion Items
1. Ammunition Bid (2026-328) – Police Department
- Proposal: $104,914 for annual ammunition from Eagle Point Gun (sole bidder).
- Discussion: Councilman Lattiser proposed amending to $75,000, mirroring last year's award, citing concerns about inventory and bidding process. Councilman Nappa argued inventory is lower than last year and new firearms will require additional training rounds. The amendment failed 5-4, and the original $104,914 was approved.
- Key Statistics: Current inventory of 9mm ball ammo: 148,706 rounds; projected after training by June 1: 53,706 rounds. One-year supply target is ~55,000 rounds.
2. Flock Safety Drone Program (2026-382) – Police Department
- Proposal: $150,000 over three years (from asset forfeiture funds) for a drone-as-first-responder system.
- Discussion: Colonel Lima presented operational benefits (arrival in 60-90 seconds, real-time video, reduced officer risk). Councilman Ricks raised privacy and data retention concerns; the drone will be used only reactively for 911 calls, with 30-day data deletion. Councilman Lattiser questioned financial sustainability, but the program uses no tax dollars. The contract was approved favorably.
3. Peterbilt Cab Chassis (2026-383) – Water Division
- Proposal: $135,199 for a 2026 Peterbilt 548 cab chassis (without dump body) via state MPA contract.
- Discussion: Councilman Lattiser opposed, citing online searches for comparable trucks with dump bodies for $93,000–$104,000. Motion to deny and send out for bid passed 5-4.
- Outcome: Unfavorable recommendation; sent back to administration for rebidding.
4. Mental Health Co-Responder (2026-328) – Police Department
- Proposal: $82,007.60 renewal with Thrive Behavioral Health for a clinician embedded with officers.
- Discussion: Council praised the program's success. Approved without opposition.
5. Dispatch Console Furniture (2026-382) – Police Department
- Proposal: $170,000 (capital outlay) to replace 22-year-old consoles.
- Discussion: Safety and ergonomic issues noted. Approved.
6. Neptune Meter Software (2026-386 & 388) – Water Division
- Proposal: $27,400 annual subscription for Neptune 360 cloud platform (critical, current software unsupported). Also $28,000 for Munis data integration from Tyler Technologies.
- Discussion: Director Wallette explained the urgency; both items were approved favorably (Councilman Ricks recused).
Key Outcomes
- Ammunition bid: Approved as requested ($104,914) after amendment failed.
- Drone program: Approved (three-year, $150,000 from asset forfeiture).
- Peterbilt truck: Rejected (unfavorable action); rebid requested.
- Mental health contract: Approved.
- Dispatch consoles: Approved.
- Neptune software: Approved.
- Health insurance reconsideration: Motion to reconsider the February 9 vote on the health insurance contract (no-bid extension) was ruled out of order by the chair, citing Robert's Rules (action already carried out). The appeal of that ruling was sustained 5-3, leaving the prior approval in place.
- Dog park ordinance (PCO 2-26): Amended to clarify that children of any age may be accompanied by a responsible adult; passed first passage.
- Easement for Pilgrim High School: Approved as amended to a temporary license.
- Other resolutions: Black History Month and Women's History Month resolutions approved.
- Tree removal: Approved.
- Abatements: Approved.
Meeting Transcript
And the council, the finance committee, the Warwick City Council is called to order. Okay, on the agenda, I need the acceptance of the committee meeting held on February Ninth. We have a motion of favorable. We have a second by Councilman Mudo. All in favor. And I know most of the cases, there is an explanation in the position package or position paper why you need a fifty-six six. And I think um everyone realizes that the members of the public are um certainly becoming more and more involved in our city government, and um they're they're looking for a little bit of clarity on some of this. So if you could just do that if you haven't been, and if you have, thank you for that. We are going to start with item number one found on page one, 2026 353 Cas, diesel, etc. Chief. Good evening. Chief, you're gonna you're you're in luck tonight because with this sun on our eyes, we can't see your facial expressions or your body language. Fantastic. Assistant Chief Alman Hauer from the fire department. Uh fire department uh reviewed bid 2026, 353 C gasoline, low sulfur diesel and ultra-low sulfur diesel. Uh received seven bids. Fire department is recommending the bid go to Mirabido Hold-ins, doing business as Mirabido Energy Products. They were the lowest, they uh submitted the lowest overall price uh based on the oil price information service of the Port of Providence. Uh, this current bid expires on 4.9 of 26, and if approved, we'll have an effective date of 41026 through 4927 for an amount not to exceed 250,000 dollars. Thank you, Chief. Um my first question is is the pricing that we have in this bid package, is that pricing still good? Yeah, that's a that's an increment over the daily rate. So this so whatever the day the daily rate changes every day, they charge us an extra 23, just about 24 cents per gallon for the charge. So it really doesn't matter. Day to day it changes, it's always 24 cents more than whatever the rate rack is. Um I'm also curious. Uh at the last meeting, we had a police and municipal come to us for fuel. Why didn't your department come to us for fuel at the same time and just get it done? It's a matter of when to review the bids. I didn't get a chance to review the bid right away, and the bid was due within the days after the bid were awarded, and I wasn't there. So by the time I got in and got to review it, it already passed the deadline, so I pushed to this actually was last meeting's bid. But yeah, I tried to do it, but I don't want to rush it too fast. Obviously, I rushed this one a little bit as you can tell already by my one mistake in my cover letter. Okay, Chief. Um I had also reached out to you over, I think it was actually yesterday, maybe, uh might have been Saturday. Um clarify your um comment or the paragraph where it says for ultra-low sulfur fuel uh diesel sulfur diesel pinnacle petroleum. I picked up on that and I didn't think that was what you wanted to. So just could you just clarify that for everyone, please? Yeah, so the original uh this was probably a multitasking error on my part. Uh the uh original letter that I had submitted said that Pinnacle Petroleum submitted the lowest bid, although the actual recommendation for the award was correct to Mirabidal Holding. So I did submit a follow-up uh corrected version of it. Right. But although since that consent calendar was already created, we couldn't add it in back into it. But we did send a revision out. Great of that. You you didn't notice that, and that was correct. That was an error on my part. Okay, yeah, thank you for that, Chief. Um the encumbrance that was in um unis report that I've seen, I think it was last week. Uh there was an encumbrance of 56,813.
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