Providence City Council Meeting | January 16th, 2025 | Committee on Finance

Good evening, everyone. I'm calling our Providence City Council meeting on this January 16 to order. Madam clerk, please call the roll.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Councilor Royas?

Present.

Councilwoman Ryan is absent. Majority Whip Sanchez?

Councilman Taylor?

Here.

Councilwoman Anna Vargas?

Present.

Councilman Oscar Vargas?

Present.

You have 14 present and one absent.

You have a quorum.

Thank you, madam clerk. Will everyone please rise, including our guest tonight, for the invocation that will be led by councilor Sue Anderwat.

Thank you so much. I often feel some way about public prayer and that way is not positive. So I wanted to read a few quotes by Jimmy Carter, president who we're all still in mourning, and who had really amazing thoughts on government and how we should treat each other. And as we consider the resolution about him and his life today, I thought this was an appropriate way to honor him, an additional way to honor him. He's gonna say nation in these, and I'd like us to think city.

We are, of course, a nation of differences. Those differences don't make us weak. They're the source of our strength. We have become not a melting pot, but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained at the same time. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. A weak nation, like a weak person, must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. And I'd like us to just remember president Carter and these lessons he had for us on government and also how to treat each other and our neighbors as we go about our work here in the city. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. Please stay, standing for the pledge of allegiance led by councilwoman Anthony.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Item three, madam clerk.

Item three is the election of two members to the Providence External Review Authority.

Elections are now open for, two members to the External Review Authority. Are there any nominations?

Madam president.

Majority leader Espinoza. I would

like to nominate Deborah Wray and Darrell Williams.

Second, madam president.

We have a nomination and a second. Are there any further nominations? Are there any further further nominations? Are there any further nominations?

Hearing none, madam clerk, please cast one ballot for Deborah Ray and Darryl Williams as members of the Providence External Review Authority.

So noted.

Thank you.

Madam president.

Deputy majority of affairs.

Personal expression, please. Thank you, madam president. First of all, I'd like to congratulate these two appointments to Providence External Review Authority. As you know, I wanna first speak on miss Deborah Ray, who has been a tireless leader for our community and for Providence. I know if you probably looked up anything documented by her back in the old days, we used to Google people.

I think they Wick a pita people now. You will find so much work that she's done, in the city of Providence. So we're proud that she's able to step up one more time to be a part of the civilian oversight. I know I think this is her maybe her third time entering into, making sure that we have a solid board. I also like to thank mister Darryl Williams for joining us, as a part of the city and the para board as well.

We know that your work is hard and consuming but we do know that you're doing a wonderful, wonderful job here and we appreciate you. Madam president, I also wanna talk about and welcome our council members to the housing Christ task force. The reason we are asking and the committee is asking me to express the fact that we, after last week of understanding that if we stick together and if we are creative and we think outside the box, we truly can change things for the for the betterment of people. There are so many unhoused people. There are so many people that's losing their homes, whether they're homeowners or whether they are renters.

So we are coming together for call to action. We're asking all of our council to come help pitch in to what we could do as a as a body to make sure we continue looking out for our most vulnerable people. So I wanna also ask councilwoman Peterson to share some of her expressions. If you don't mind, council president, I'm gonna end this. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, deputy majority leader. Councilwoman Peterson.

Thank you very much, madam president. Thank you very much, deputy majority leader. I really appreciate it. You know, I think it goes without saying that last week's council meeting, I I speak for myself and I'm sure that I speak for many here, but I was very moved. You know, I reflecting on what our counselors did takes a lot of grit and a lot of a lot of patience within yourself to be able to do and and but also to give back in a way where people felt seen and felt heard.

I sat here and I talked with quite a few for about three hours and I and they shared their experiences with me. One of the things one of my biggest takeaways last week in all of this was I there was a person staying and and and seeking shelter here for the night. It was somebody that I had known from many, many years ago, and his story had been a lot of perseverance in trying to stay just to try and stay afloat, and seeing him again but under these conditions was a very harsh reality that I'm sure many, when faced with this, are are dealing with. I know that, us as counselors have probably been asked in multiple multiple capacities. Last week, I didn't get a chance to do it, but I wanted to thank, our council staff because they were unbelievable last week.

But I did I wanted to also personally thank Melissa Cruz. I had a family from Ward 14 that was faced in some of the most story, but it was just one of the most extreme situations. And Melissa took charge, and she led with so much empathy and support for this mom and her son. And I'm I'm eternally grateful. So when you see her, please tell her that I said thank you.

But moving on, your call to action, counselors, it made me think of what we do as legislators here. And one of the things that we have in our body is the opportunity to legislate in the proper way. While we can't always be direct service, we can move in a way to make things better. So in talking with deputy majority leader Harris in trying to build on that momentum, I thought that we could utilize our our public properties to create opportunities for pop up opportunities during the if we're if we're calling out accountability, we can start here where we're saying, hey. We didn't do it either.

So now we're going to. And one of the things that I think is extremely important is is that we start utilizing every resources that we have and seeing how we can utilize them better for a year round opportunity for our unhoused in the city. So thank you very much, councilwoman Harris. I really, really appreciate you just listening to me, and thank you to the policy team for also just trying to take the initiative and run with this. I look forward to working in collaboration with the administration to get this done for our city and for our community, specifically the unhoused.

And I do wanna also thank councilman Royes and councilman Sanchez for stepping up in situations where I think some of us weren't even ready to do yet. So thank you.

Thank you, councilwoman. I'd like to also extend my personal congratulations to miss Deb and Darrell, and thank you for your service. Counselors, if you'd like to stick around immediately after the meeting, we will be swearing them in for another term on the para board. Item four, please.