copyright the Chronicle August 23, 2017
by Joseph Gresser
NEWPORT — City council members were surprised, and none too happy, to learn Tuesday that the consultant they hired to guide the city’s redevelopment efforts would be meeting with a steering committee organized by the Newport City Renaissance Corporation (NCRC) the next morning.
The council members were not invited to the meeting, which is to plan strategies for economic redevelopment in the city. In fact, they only learned about it when a reporter called to ask what they knew about it.
When asked if he knew there was to be such a meeting, City Council President John Wilson replied, “I did not know that.”
He said he was not pleased to learn he had been excluded from that information, but said only that he would deal with the matter, “in my own way.”
Council member Denis Chenette said, “I didn’t know about it until Mr. Wilson called me.”
Three council members said they plan to crash the gates at the meeting.
According to Newport Mayor Paul Monette, there was no reason the council members should have been informed. He said he was invited to be a steering committee member by NCRC.
“I attend a lot of meetings, I don’t tell the council about all of them,” Mr. Monette said Tuesday evening. “Sometimes I meet with people who want to do business in the city. I don’t tell the council because they ask me not to.”
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