Dist. 3 Coventry: Houle to Push for Transparency

COVENTRY, RI —  Tuesday, Richard Houle, 39, of 73 Puritan Ave., real estate broker and  the sole Coventry Dist. 3 candidate in the special election, aims to continue the fiduciary service provided by former Councilman James LeBlanc, and keep pushing for town government transparency.

Following the resignations of former Dist. 5 Councilman Scott Copley and LeBlanc in April, Coventry will hold a special election Tuesday to elect new Town Councillors for each seat. The pair left the Council in protest over stonewalled attempts to access un-redacted invoices for Town Solicitor Stephen Angell’s services concerning the town’s eminent domain taking of Johnson’s Pond last year.

Coventry Town Council President Hilary Lima says the redactions are legal exemptions under the state’s Access to Public Records Act for negotiations, as Angell  continues to defend the town’s position regarding the pond. Also, she said, Copley and LeBlanc previously voted for the contract in unanimous votes, and have attempted to put the issue on the Council agenda even though it has already been discussed during previous meetings.

Coventry Dist. 3: Houle Seeks Transparency, Opposes Fire District Consolidation

Shortly  after the  resignations, the remaining members of the Council voted to expand access to the invoices to the entire Council. Previously, only Lima was able to view the un-redacted invoices. Houle said that hasn’t fully resolved the issue, because the records are only available by appointment in Angell’s office, with no opportunity to record, copy or take notes from them.

“I think those documents should be held at Town Hall,” Houle said. Their current ability to access the full invoices don’t allow them to fulfill their duty as council members, he said.  Houle said he also doesn’t accept the argument that the invoices may be leaked to the public, since responsibility for that would fall to whomever leaked the documents. (The town has experienced an as-yet unexplained leak of executive session minutes from 2023 discussing  the plan to take Johnson’s Pond by eminent domain, according to a Hummel Report story.)

So, Houle intends to push for the same access provided to Lima. He said there’s no special authority inherent in the Town Council President position, so there’s no reason to give that person special access to those records and restrict it for the rest of them. Also, Houle said he intends to push for a vote to elect a new Town Council President when he is sworn in.

That’s the likely outcome of the Tuesday election, which no longer features a contest of candidates. Houle’s initial oppoent, Kathy Farwell, of 7 Breezy Lake Drive, said she has withdrawn from the race due to a health issue. 

Houle said a big part of his decision to enter the race was to oppose Farwell. He said he was concerned about her relationship to former Coventry Fire District Chairman Frank Palin, who resigned from that position after being charged with sexually assaulting a patient at the Cornerstone at Canton assisted living facility in 2018. Palin and Farwell have the same address, but when asked about the connection, Farwell said she is not politically connected to Palin, and only rents from him.

“I don’t buy that,” Houle said.

Houle said he was also pleased with the service LeBlanc provided to the town and is interested in following in his footsteps after his resignation. One financial concern he will tackle is the timing of the consolidation of the town’s  fire districts. While he agrees the districts should ultimately be consolidated, that will likely raise taxes because the relative health of some districts will likely not compensate for the financial challenges of others.

“Now is not the time,” Houle said, pointing to the Coventry School Department’s deficit, which the town is already working to correct.

The polling place for the Dist. 5 Special Election for people living on or near Puritan Avenue is at:

• • • • Maple Root Baptist Church150 Harkney Hill Rd

Voting hours run from 7 a.m. till 8 p.m. Tuesday.