Farina and Hopkins Spar Over 'Pro-Business' Ordinance's Filing Date
GoLocalProv News Team
Farina and Hopkins Spar Over 'Pro-Business' Ordinance's Filing Date
Farina says that Hopkins failed to properly submit the legislation and missed the deadline.
“Council Member Hopkins missed the deadline for new business last week and did not send a written version of his ordinance until today the day of the council meeting at 4:30. The deadline for new business is Wednesday before the meeting, which would have been last Wednesday,” said Farina.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFarina says, “[Hopkins] is claiming he sent an email to the city's attorney John Verdechia on May 18th which I have no record of nor did he present at any point. From what I was told Friday Attorney Verdechia advised Mr. Hopkins that the Mayor needed to do an executive order to delay the adoption of the bag ban and an Ordinance was not proper.”
Hopkins said in a statement, “Last Monday, May 18th, I announced that I would be proposing an ordinance to extend the original enforcement date of July 1, 2020 for local restaurants and businesses to stop the use of plastic bags. The ordinance would suspend the effective date one year to allow our local businesses to get through this most difficult time. To allow for timely passage, I asked that this proposal be placed on the docket for this evening’s council meeting. The council president, however, ordered that it not be placed on the docket.”
See GoLocal’s coverage of Hopkin’s proposal.
This is not the first political battle between the two since they both declared for mayor. The two fired charges and counter-charges early in May over sitting Mayor Allan Fung's proposed budget.
“The docket was sent to the council on Wednesday and he demanded the acting clerk add the ordinance on Friday, 2 days after the deadline. The docket had already been advertised so so under the open meetings act we could have amended the docket prior to Friday but he made no effort to call me to discuss an alternate solution, only today did he submit his bill,” said Farina.
Farina Charges Hopkins Spends Too Much Times on Press Releases
“After 4 years on the council one would assume Mr. Hopkins would know how to get business to the council. If Councilmember Hopkins spent more time doing the work of a councilperson and less time on these press releases he might have been able to write and submit his ordinance the proper way. He may choose to ignore open meeting rules but as the Council President I am responsible for adhering to the OMA,” added Farina.
Hopkins says Farina could have allowed the ordinance to be considered.
“The council president ignored my pro-business idea that received very favorable feedback from many of our citizens. I see no valid reason why he is trying to derail what many businesses in our city desire. It must be due to election-year politics,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins continued, “By not allowing my proposed ordinance to be introduced on Tuesday night he may well hurt the timing of the consideration by the full council. Ordinances need to be introduced at a council meeting and that’s why I want it introduced this month for hearing in June.”
Hopkins claims that City Council rules clearly state (Rule 33) that council members shall have the right to introduce ordinances. “The council president cannot unilaterally decide who can and cannot introduce an ordinance,” said Hopkins. Rule 32 of the council says the council president approves the docket as prepared by the City Clerk, “That is for form not substance.”
“A council member’s duty to introduce an ordinance should not be silenced. The public gets discouraged by public officials who play these games. They expect us to be public servants, not self-serving politicians. Cranston deserves nothing less and public service will continue to be my guiding principle,” added Hopkins.
Hopkins says that his ordinance was submitted in a timely fashion, "Not true. I submitted the request on May 18. I have the message that was sent to the City Clerk. I was told by the solicitor that it had to come from the Mayor through an Executive order. My legal team told me that was not true. I submitted the request in a timely fashion as I have done for my two terms in office. Why all of a sudden does this request get blocked? Sounds to me like political shenanigans. A member of the City Council has every right to submit an Ordinance. That was not allowed in this case."
UPDATED 5/27/2020 8:26 AM