Warwick Ward 6 City Council Race Q&A: Lane Italiane

Warwickpost.com invited all Warwick City Council candidates to answer the same seven questions, giving them 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 Lane Italiane’s answers:

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A –  1a) Should the policy require documentation of receipt and understanding, and/or reminders?

LANE ITALIANE: We should require documentation from employees that they have read and understand policies on sexual harassment. All employees should attend an annual refresher course on this matter.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 1b) Warwick Post received information on the policy and its distribution to managers –  public information – after a public records request following unanswered requests to the mayor’s office, weeks later. Mayor Picozzi has declined comment on the issue, citing legal concerns. Does Warwick’s mayor have a responsibility to comment to the public generally about the sexual harassment policy, and the communication of it to staff? How would you handle such situations?

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 1c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 2) What is the most important thing you intend to do to aid small businesses in the city?

LANE ITALIANE: Mom-and-pop businesses are the core of our democracy. Since COVID, many small businesses have been pushed to their financial limits.  We need to work with them to get through the planning, building permits, licensing, and other departments to ease some strict rules. Educate them on SBA small business loans and training. I am not saying to eliminate the regulations but to extend some of them to help them get off the ground. We must fix roads and clean up all the abandoned lots that are not kept anymore so people will want to return to our city. I want to bring beautification back to Warwick again.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 3) In 2022, the RIAG’s office ruled the original digital records detailing WFD sick time taken by firefighters between 2013 and 2018 that cost the city up to $368,000, produced for the city by Marcum, belonged to Marcum and not the public, and therefore were not subject to the RI Access to Public Records Act, leaving the public to enter the information manually from the printed report for digital analysis:https://warwickpost.com/city-doesnt-have-to-produce-fire-sick-time-file-says-ag/

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A –  3b) What is your opinion of how this information was released to the public?

LANE ITALIANE: I need to recuse myself from personal feelings in this matter as I do use Marcum with a couple of my clients, of which Tom Lisi is a head CPA. I would not want to overstep any boundaries and to remember my oath of privacy or office.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 3c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this topic.

LANE ITALIANE: Lane Italiane did not elaborate on this question.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 4) Warwick School Committee Chairman Shaun Galligan reports the new high schools project will outstrip the $350M bond.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 4a) Would you support a second bond to make up the difference? Why or Why Not?

LANE ITALIANE: I heard from both sides at the school committee meeting this past Wednesday. I listen to their feelings as I walk door to door to chat with people. I have researched why parents send their kids to private schools or other cities. It is mainly our school’s reputation as one of the lowest academically. Unless we properly maintain our schools and other public buildings, we will continue needless early replacements like our high schools. 

As presented this past Wednesday, I would not support a second bond. 

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 4b) Please share any other thoughts you have on this topic.

LANE ITALIANE: We need to look at the big picture. If parents send their kids to other cities, what can we offer them to stay? Making a beautiful state of art school is not the only answer. East Greenwich schools are old, with no air conditioning and horrific maintenance (my son-in-law is a teacher there), but they max out on students from other cities wanting to transfer there. They go for the academics, not the “state-of-the-art” or athletic fields.  We could afford to pay our teachers much better with proper oversight and budgeting. 

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 5) ACLU of Rhode Island has filed a free speech suit against the Warwick City Council  in federal court for stifling the free speech rights of Rob Cote, barred from speaking at a July 17 Council meeting about allegations of ethical misconduct aimed at Councilwoman Donna Travis.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 5a) Are you prepared to honor the public’s right to speak at Council meetings, even if the speech criticizes you personally, or someone you know?

LANE ITALIANE: We are representatives of our constituents. I hope they will come to me to work things out, but they can discuss their concerns if they don’t. The public has the right to speak, and I disagree with their freedom of speech being taken away, as is being currently done. 

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 5b) Why do you think Mr. Cote’s speech was so easily squelched? What would you propose to avoid a repeat of this behavior from the Council?

LANE ITALIANE: Mr. Cote’s speech was squelched because Councilwoman Travis knew she was in the wrong. The proper thing would have been to get a vote from all council members on whether Mr. Cote could continue his speech. 

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A –  5c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this topic.

LANE ITALIANE: I would like to see questions & answers in the city council meetings. Time can still be made, and it needs to be much longer than 3 minutes for each person. The first meeting of each month could be advertised with a Q&A time. This would also bring more people into the meeting. Our constituents feel that attending the meetings wastes time because they never get answers to the questions and are restricted to 3 minutes. Some of the current board members appear not to care when they are speaking, as they are busy on their phones or napping.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A – 6) In 2023, members of the public unsuccessfully proposed reforms to the public speaking segment rules, including preventing Council members’ filibustering from counting against the public speaker’s time, and allowing responses from the Council.

6a) Will you support those changes when the rules are scheduled to be reconsidered in 2025? Why?

LANE ITALIANE: Please see my answers in number 5. I will:

• • Make department heads responsible for staying within their budgets. · 
  • Work with companies with proper qualifications to present a reasonable working bid 
  • Have departments who are responsible for our city properties and vacant lots maintain them back to the beauty they once had
  • Foster a culture of openness, responsibility, and accountability
  • Fight for your needs and make decisions backed by evidence and care.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A –  6b) What other changes would you like to see?

LANE ITALIANE: Lane Italiane did not elaborate on this question.

WARWICK Ward 6 CITY COUNCIL Q&A –  6c) Please share any other thoughts you have on this topic.

LANE ITALIANE: Lane Italiane did not elaborate on this question.