VIDEO: Woonsocket City Council Votes to Remove Mayor Baldelli-Hunt From Office
Thursday, October 06, 2022
The Woonsocket City Council has voted to remove Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt.
The action came after a petition was filed in September alleging Baldelli-Hunt was responsible for a pattern of misconduct, including as it came to the interference in legal matters in the city.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBaldelli-Hunt had called the motion at the time “politically motivated and desperate.”
At a special meeting that began at 6:30 PM Wednesday night and ended more than 7 hours later, the council on a 3-2 count voted to remove Baldelli-Hunt.
“You do get the sense in the cross-examination that the Mayor — especially as it relates to some of these legal interpretations — feels that she is the arbiter of all things legal in the City of Woonsocket, regardless of what our hired solicitor expresses in an opinion in conformity of our charter and with his reading of the laws,” said Council Vice President John Ward.
“So I think in my opinion related to this and another issue where the Mayor felt that her interpretation of law somehow had higher standing that the solicitor…I find that this would be sufficient cause for removal because I don’t think that’s a position that any administrative elected or hired person should hold in relation to the city solicitor,” Ward continued.
Council President Dan Gendron ultimately recused himself from the vote — but had the following to say about the city’s hiring of additional legal attorneys.
“The genesis of hiring these attorneys was that there was so much fear in City Hall — unfortunately, that wasn’t a fear created by the city council…we mistakenly and accidentally found out that stipends were given without council authority and then legal counsel was hired without counsel authority,” said Gendron.
Councilors Ward, Roger Jalette, and James Cournoyer voted for removal, with Councilors David Soucy and Valerie Gonzalez opposed.
Denise Sierra, who filed the initial complaint, recused herself.
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