[CREDIT: Grattan for Dist. 5] Mike Grattan is running in the Coventry Dist. 5 Council race for Coventry Town Council.COVENTRY, RI — Michael Grattan, Coventry resident for 29 years, Commercial Manager of A. B. Munroe Dairy who raised two kids in town with his wife, Amy, took notice of the school budget, Johnson’s Pond and development, inspiring his Coventry Dist. 5 Council race run.
“I have lived in Coventry since October 1995, when my wife Amy and I bought our first, and current, home. We have raised two children here, Coached softball and soccer, served on the CSA Board of Directors in various positions and volunteered at many church and community activities. We consider Coventry home as we have spent more than half our lives here,” Grattan wrote in response to the Q&A invitation to talk about his background and history in Coventry.
“I have been with the dairy for nearly four years now. Prior to that I have worked in sales, education and business/restaurant management. I returned to school as an adult, and while working a full time job and a part time job, managed to receive my B.A. in History with a minor in English from URI (Graduating December 2016, Magna Cum Laude and a member of two honor societies)
My reasons for running for council: my children are grown, and recent events regarding the school budget, Johnson’s Pond and development in the town have raised my attention.I am looking to give back to the community and hope to bring a common sense approach to some of the decision making in the town,” Grattan said.
“I did not enter into this candidacy as a way to satisfy ego or to feed some sort of need for power, I saw a need in this town and I stepped up to fill it if possible. I am a firm believer that serving the public is honorable and I want to give back to the town that has been good to me.
My agenda, well, basically to bring back common sense and find ways to get dedicated and caring people to work together to bring our town into the future I believe the road ahead is full of difficult decisions, I believe that we need to consult the experts, use the data available and make good decisions.
I believe nobody has all the answers and that it is ok to say “I’m not sure about that, let me get the research so that I can offer an informed opinion and make an educated decision. If I thought I had all the answers, I would not be someone who anyone should vote for. Anyone who feels they have all the answers, for everything, is someone who stopped asking questions.
Asking good questions, and being open to evaluation of information, is the key to making good decisions. Listening to the experts, AND the people who are most affected by your decisions, is good leadership,” Grattan continued.
Coventry Dist. 5 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 Grattan’s answers:
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A
Coventry Dist. 5 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 Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 1A) What is your position on level-funded budgets?
GRATTAN: I think that level funding is a means to get a budget through if there are time constraints and a lack of good data to plan accordingly, however, being expeditious is not always best. In this next budget cycle, I think it would be irresponsible to level fund without taking a hard look at where that funding is going, the debt has to be addressed, so even if the funding is level, the allocation of those funds need to go to pay down debt and provide essential services. There should be NO increase to the budget without 1) addressing the debt/deficit issue and allocating funds to correct the problem 2) there must be a reckoning regarding the current over spending and the person(s) responsible for this must be held accountable.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 1B) How can the Council be more proactive with financial leadership?
GRATTAN: I believe the current Council, particularly the President and VIce President, have been calling attention to the matters of the deficit and the extreme delay of filing the financials. I also believe that the recent action regarding the senior tax freeze was a good step in following procedure and protocol that has been in place but not enacted or enforced, The Council must find ways to hold those HIRED by the town to submit reports on time, and in completion and take immediate ans swift action, within the law and the charter, to reprimand, or replace those who are not meeting their responsibilities. I also believe that if the current rules of the charter or hiring practices of the town prevent that accountability to take place, then, those guidelines and rules must be changed so that the Town Council can act in the best interest of the citizens and taxpayers.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 1C) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
GRATTAN: Coventry has had a reputation, rightfully so or not, of being a town where things were done on a handshake and a smile and that many financial issues have been kicked down the road. Well, these problems have now all come to roost, and the road is a dead end.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 2) How can the town‘s fire districts be better managed?
GRATTAN: I am glad to see that the town council has formed a commission to explore merging the districts into one municipal fire company. However, and this is a big however, I am concerned that the town is already significantly upside down in our assets vs liability standing and feel that taking over the districts to become one municipal department, will make that imbalance even greater. It will be interesting to see what the finding of this committee is.
My position is that we can consolidate some of the redundancies of the different districts by merger,(administration for example), however, I would prefer to see the consolidation start at merging all the districts in a single fire district, with multiple stations and NOT go straight to a municipal fire department.
The reason for this is so that the districts can address their union contracts, and any concessions that need to be made to consolidate and they can bargain with each other the use of their assets and address their pension and other liabilities before the town picks up the tab, and gets stuck with collective bargaining with multiple groups, and paying bills that have gone unpaid.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 3) What is the most important thing you will do to aid small businesses in town?
GRATTAN: Infrastructure is a key for small business in this town, If the roads are awful, or hard to navigate, people will not be as willing to visit and purchase goods and services. I will encourage DPW to continue to work with the state to improve roads and find funds available to make access to our small businesses easier. I would also be open to working with different groups like the small business association, the Rotary and others to hear their concerns and see what the town can do to support them, particularly businesses that are locally owned and employ Coventry residents.
Coventry Dist. 5 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 Dist. 5 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? What would you suggest?
GRATTAN: I believe that supporting more sewer access is important to the growth, health and well being of our community. My biggest concern is the cost that is passed along, or forced upon the home and business owners to hook up to the sewers, Admittedly, I will have to become more informed in the process and the current state of the plan for the town. Lack of access to sewers has come up in a number of meetings of the Planning Commission, and is something that can hinder further, responsible development on both the commercial and residential side.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council Council race Q&A – 4b) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
Grattan did not elaborate on this Coventry Dist. 5 race question.
Coventry Dist. 5 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?
GRATTAN: I think this is necessary and of the utmost importance. One cannot offer solutions to a problem they do not fully understand. If elected, I would make it a priority to do this.
Coventry Dist. 5 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.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 6a) Should these groups interact more?
GRATTAN: Yes, they should, in fact I have already reached out to the teachers union and told them that I understand there has been a breakdown in communication between the school committee and the town council and that I would advocate for bringing all to the table to work together to understand the financial issues and solve them so that we can responsibly fund our schools and provide the best education possible for the children of our town.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A – 6b) If so, how would you approach that?
GRATTAN: WIthout violating any open meeting rules of course, I would encourage representatives from both the town and school side to meet in a a”round table” and a collaborative work session format (less formal than a meeting) where no votes are taken, but stakeholders will have a means to discuss the issues the schools are facing, the financial needs and the financial ability of the town to address these issues. I would want to do this many months before it is time to submit and approve the budget so that all can have a say in the matter and perhaps have less blaming and more working together to find solutions.
Coventry Dist. 5 Council race Q&A –6c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.
GRATTAN: I would also ask that members of the public be invited to attend and discuss so that the concerns of the parents and the students can be heard, Too many times over the years it seems the children are held for ransom with the threat of cancelling sports and after school activities and then the blame game starts. The town council is blamed for not funding the schools properly and the teachers are blamed for making too much salary and costing more money than the town can afford. The blame game has to stop. We all want the best education for our students, the health of the town and its future depend upon it, but, we just can’t throw more money at a budget hoping that will happen either. The biggest issue right now is oversight on spending, from my perspective and what better whay to find where the money NEEDS to go then bring everyone together to decide.
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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