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The town has already collected $4 million of a possible $13 million in extra money hidden from the budget process.
News & Commentary
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Commentary
Building and Zoning When the Town Council Doesn’t Act on Broad Agreement
The Budget Committee meetings in the early months of 2017 for current fiscal year were not exactly harmonious, but one of the areas of rare agreement was that the building and zoning office needed more help. As a member of the committee, I remember very well the consternation of Building Official Neil Hall when he said that he would quit if his office didn't get some relief, and we ultimately gave him what he requested. This news, as Marcia Pobzeznik reports in the Newport Daily News, is therefore perplexing: Town Council President Denise deMedeiros said the office is sometimes closed three out of five days in a week. That happens when the clerk is out and the building official is behind closed doors reviewing plans and then out of the office on inspections, she said. The council last week approved a request by McGreevy to advertise for additional clerical help in the building official's office, but because it could be a month before someone is hired, council members said a more immediate fix is necessary. As Pobzeznik notes, the Budget Committee's budget, which passed uncontested through the financial town referendum (FTR), included funds to resolve this problem. Oddly, Pobzeznik reports Town Council President Denise deMedeiros as saying that the plan changed, when really the only thing changing appears to be the council's story: A part-time building official was included in the budget for the current fiscal year, but the plan then changed to reconstruct the building and planning offices to share clerical…
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