![[CREDIT: Rob Borkowski] Solicitor Stephen Angell tells the April 8 Town Council crowd that he reported Councilman Scott Copley's threat to "skull fuck" Council President Hilary Lima.](https://e8dgfhu6pow.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Scott-Copley-Skull-Fuck-Threat.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
![[CREDIT: Rob Borkowski] Solicitor Stephen Angell tells the April 8 Town Council crowd that he reported Councilman Scott Copley's threat to "skull fuck" Council President Hilary Lima. This morning, Lima resigned. Angell resigned Wednesday.](https://e8dgfhu6pow.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Scott-Copley-Skull-Fuck-Threat-336x272.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
Lima resigned today. Angell resigned Wednesday. A Special Town Council Meeting is scheduled to discuss removing the pair today at Town Hall, Flat River Road, at 6 p.m.
Lima and Angell have been the focus of a push from members of the Council and local Facebook groups to share unredacted solicitor invoices for the Johnson’s Pond seizure by eminent domain in 2024 and the 2025 lawsuit by Socsia Holdings LLC challenging that. Angell argues the full versions of the invoices must be protected during the lawsuit to protect the town’s case to defend the 2024 seizure.
Lima Resigned From Council This Morning, 9 a.m.
We were getting somewhere and moving Coventry forward. But now, this town is at a crossroads once again. I implore the silent majority that has supported me behind closed doors to finally stand up to the loud minority that sits behind a keyboard and claims to speak for all of you. Nothing about this behavior is inviting to potential new residents, commercial developers, prospective business owners, or that of potential educators, public safety professionals, or municipal staff to want to engage with this community. It’s why virtually every local election is unopposed and it’s what has held Coventry back for decades. It’s why you, Madame Clerk, have seen more town managers than you have years working for the Town,” Lima wrote In her resignation letter to Town Clerk Joanne Amitrano.
Lima noted in her letter that upon starting on the Council, she inherited a town dealing with 18 months of unreconciled bank statements, negligent town management, three years of late audits, Johnson’s Pond in the hands of malicious actors, the Center of New England development at a standstill, no comprehensive community plan, no plan to fix our school buildings, no money allocated to paving roads, broken-down trash trucks, no capital improvement budget, an unstable police department, no playgrounds in town for children, deteriorating water quality in our lakes, no one standing up for residents against developers, no plan for the future of wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and a mounting structural deficit in the school department.
“I am profoundly proud that I have been at the helm to tackle and accomplish a significant turnaround for all of that. I didn’t do it alone; there are people in this community who genuinely care and dedicate themselves to the town. That spirit and those partnerships are what sustained me for so long. It is critical to note that the core leadership team responsible for executing and helping to achieve those significant accomplishments from 2022 through 2024 – the Council President, the Town Manager, and the Town Solicitor – remains the exact same. Yet, suddenly this year, we were painted as “bad people.” The result of this engineered chaos is clear: nothing has gotten done for the community since. The opposition is no longer focused on service; they are focused solely on disruption,” Lima wrote.
Last week, as the Town Council discussed removing Lima and Angell, which they voted to do unanimously, several members of the Council criticized Lima for removing public comment from the agenda that night. Thursday, Lima said she did that after hearing from several Council members about the public mood becoming toxic.
“I removed that after hearing from many council members behind the scenes they felt it was becoming unruly and unproductive. It is not required to have any public comment in state law, and more than half of councils in RI don’t have public comment on undocketed items like that, but I would never commit to it being off the agenda forever nor was I ever going to remove the public comment on docketed items. Just an effort to turn down the temperature in town especially after the recent threat of violence against the whole council about 3 weeks ago.”
A full copy of Lima’s letter is attached below. Letter from the Council President - October 2, 2025
Author: Rob Borkowski
Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at editor@warwickpost.com with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.
This is a test
