01:00 AM EST on Friday, January 12, 2007

By Maria Armental

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — At another crowded and raucous meeting of the Town Council last night, two of the town’s solicitors were replaced and public comment on the action was prohibited.

In a 3-to-2 vote, Councilmen James M. Mageau, John O. Craig Jr. and Bruce Picard voted to appoint Robert E. Craven, a Providence lawyer, as the new town solicitor and probate judge. He will also handle zoning and prosecutions for the town. Voting against the appointment were Council President Katharine H. Waterman and Council Vice President Harriet A. Allen.

Craven replaces prosecutor and Probate Judge Jennifer Sternick who was appointed in 2003, and council solicitor Peter D. Ruggiero, who will remain as the solicitor for the Planning Commission. Craven, who handled a personal matter for Mageau, was consulted by Mageau, Craig and Picard over an open-meetings complaint in November.

Indian affairs attorney Joseph S. Larisa Jr. was unanimously reappointed to that position.

Mageau and Picard declined to comment on why they didn’t want to reappoint the current lawyers when asked by Waterman.

Toward the end of the meeting, on Mageau’s motion, the council voted 3-2 to table discussion of rules and procedures, appointments of council liaisons to boards and commissions, and to prohibit public comment at the meeting. Waterman and Allen voted against that motion.

The meeting was originally to be open for public comment just before adjournment.

There had been no prior discussion by the full council on Craven’s appointment. Only Mageau, Craig, Picard and Town Administrator Edward M. Barrett knew his name would be submitted at the council meeting.

His résumé, faxed to Mageau, was never forwarded to Town Clerk Jodi LaCroix or the full council.

“It was faxed to me, and I meant to give it to Jodi,” Mageau said of Craven’s résumé when Waterman questioned Craven on why he had met the other three council members, but didn’t extend the same courtesy to the remaining members of the council.

Mageau said the résumé simply got lost amid his papers.

The attention then shifted to Barrett, who acknowledged receiving a copy of Craven’s résumé, although he didn’t say when. Mageau interjected he had only given it to him that evening.

“Did it not occur to you, Mr. Barrett that you have a responsibility to share that information with the rest of the council?” Waterman asked.

“It was given to me in case it was needed, but I destroyed it,” Barrett said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate.”

Barrett didn’t tell the full council that Mageau had introduced Craven to him shortly before the meeting started and that Barrett had conferred with Craven on a legal matter.

Mageau had requested Cox Communications Public Access volunteer Clifford L. Vanover, a critic of Mageau, to be removed from the meeting. Vanover refused to leave. “I want him out,” Mageau said. During the meeting, Ruggiero said that, based on a 2006 attorney general’s office decision, the “public does have the right to tape public meetings.”

Waterman and Allen criticized the lack of disclosure and public input in appointing the town solicitors, characterizing it as a violation of the council’s due diligence.

As the discussion heated among council members and members of the public, Picard became the punching bag for both factions with Allen and Waterman questioning whether he was informed enough to vote on the appointment of the lawyers. Picard, who has remained largely silent at council meetings, admitted he could not name the attorneys he voted not to reappoint, as did Craig, who came to his defense.

“How can you represent the town if you don’t know runs it?” a woman from the public interjected.

“You are going to sit there and be quiet, ma’am,” Mageau told her.

Mageau said Craven, whose contract has yet to be negotiated, would make what Ruggiero currently makes, about $4,500 a month.

But Allen and Waterman said they expected Mageau would likely negotiate a backroom deal for Craven.

“Ma’am. I object to that,” Barrett, the town administrator, said, breaking his usual quiet demeanor.

“Please, don’t include me in your difficulties with the Town Council,” he said.

“My responsibility is to serve the Town Council and I’m trying hard, very hard, and I don’t need any snide remarks suggesting that I’m going to hold Mr. Mageau’s interests any higher” than yours, he said, prompting an apology from Waterman.

Eyebrows were raised when Picard, responding to why he voted for Craven, said, “I think he is very well connected in the city.”

“He is talking about the State House,” Mageau said in an attempt to explain Picard’s statement.

“It worries me deeply that he is being voted in, or may be voted in, because he is well connected in the State House,” Allen said.

Allen had proposed attorney J. William Harsch, a well-known lawyer who ran for state attorney general in November to be the town solicitor and Planning Commission attorney. She also proposed Carolyn Ann Mannis, who currently handles prosecutions in Jamestown and works with the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, as probate judge and assistant town solicitor for prosecutions. Allen’s proposal was never considered for a full vote as Mageau’s motion to appoint Craven and Craig’s motion to reappoint Larisa and appoint Ruggiero assistant solicitor for planning were approved.

Craven started his career in 1983 as an assistant attorney general. He has a private practice in Providence.