[CREDIT: Blais for Town Council At-Large] Leo R. Blais, former state senator, is in the Coventry Town Council at-large race.COVENTRY, RI — Leo R. Blais, resident since 1962, who served Coventry, Scituate & Foster for 18 years in the RI Senate, started his Coventry At-Large Council race to serve residents and add accountability to local government.
Blais, a member of the Coventry Republican Town Committee, served in Senate Dist. 21 from 1992 until he was redistricted to Dist. 24 in 2002. He was redistricted back to the 21st district in 2006, Wikipedia reports. A pharmacist and owner of his own pharmacy, Blais advocated for small businesses. He is credited as the driving force behind passing legislation creating the Rhode Island Organ Donor Registry. Blais was also the first member of the General Assembly to propose decriminalizing possession of marijuana in RI.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A rules
Warwickpost.com invited all Coventry Town Council candidates to answer the same six questions, giving them all four days to respond. Candidates were urged to answer the questions directly, and invited to elaborate on each topic after answering the initial question. The answers have been edited for style and spelling, to ensure responses remain on-topic, and to avoid introducing misinformation into the debate.
All the candidates’ answers to the questionnaire have been posted within the same 10-minute window, with a digital dice roll assigning the order each set of answers run on the site, and thus, their order in the daily newsletter.
Here are Warwick Post’s questions, and Blais’ answers:
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A
1) The state auditor’s assessment of the Coventry Schools to-date $5M deficit lays partial blame on turnover of poor performing prior executive leadership, and prior finance directors on the school and town side, coinciding with ill-timed Financial Town Meeting votes for level funding. The result was inadequate budgets that didn’t catch deficits early.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –1A) What is your position on level-funded budgets?
BLAIS: Level funding budgets do not work if the council approves pay raises and does not fund them.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A – 1B) How can the Council be more proactive with financial leadership?
BLAIS: I will hold the finance directors and staff accountable for accurate financial data to be provided to the auditors.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A -1C) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –2) How can the town’s fire districts be better managed?
BLAIS: I think the districts overall do an outstanding job for public safety.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –3) What is the most important thing you will do to aid small businesses in town?
BLAIS: The council should look at adopting events to highlight local businesses, similar to what East Greenwich does.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A – 4) According to the RI Auditor General’s report on the town’s sewer program, “Only a small portion (approximately 3%) of the Town’s homeowners and businesses are connected to the System,” and, “A longer-term view needs to be part of the overall assessment of the program as there will be a future need in Coventry to expand the sewer program for either health and safety, water contamination, or economic development reasons.”
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –4a) Given the town-wide benefits to building sewers, is supporting the program in part with the General Fund, as suggested in the report, a good idea?
BLAIS: Yes.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A – 4b What would you suggest?
BLAIS: Research into available federal funds that can be leveraged.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –4c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
BLAIS: The Town passed up 95% Federal funding of sewers when my father served on the Town Council in the 1960s.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A –5) Council President Hillary Lima suggests new Council members proactively study the town’s finances and budget process with the town’s finance director. What do you think of that suggestion?
BLAIS: Good idea, lots of the budget and bond information are on the Town’s website. I am familiar with the budget process through my service on the Senate Finance Committee.
Coventry At-Large Council race Q&A – 6) State law splits governance of Schools and Municipal finance, and there tends to be a split in town members’ attention to and attendance of the respective meetings.
6a) Should these groups interact more?
BLAIS: The current charter creates an adversarial relationship between the Town Government and the School department. It is time to get both sides talking instead of fighting.
6b) If so, how would you approach that?
BLAIS: Get everyone to come to the table.
6c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
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 [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.
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