This week’s City Council meeting opens with a public hearing on the proposed FY2023 City budget. We have held a series of budget workshops over the last few weeks, with the final workshop scheduled for Monday, May 16 at 5:30 pm.
Since the workshop on Broadway’s expanded outdoor dining, I worked with Councilor Holder and some of our local Broadway businesses to put together a resolution with a proposed draft ordinance to allow “street cafes.” Street cafes would be the seasonal usage of parking areas for outdoor dining. The proposed ordinance establishes standards and regulations for these street cafes and permits their continued use in a way that is beneficial to our businesses and our residents.
The Charter Review Commission has completed its work, and its report with recommendations will be delivered to the Council this week. The Commission recommends several different changes, which are outlined in the report. The two most significant changes would be getting rid of Ward-specific seats and making the candidate who receives the highest number of votes automatically become the Mayor. On Wednesday, the Council will just be receiving the report and will likely ask the City Solicitor to review the recommendations. In the near future we will have to consider these recommendations as a body and place them on the November ballot for voter consideration.
I spent the bulk of my newsletter last week discussing my concerns with Middletown’s proposal of regionalizing with Newport. Both Councils have had Executive Sessions, but there have yet to be any public meetings to discuss the proposal. There was originally going to be an item on this Wednesday’s docket regarding regionalization, but the City Manager has pulled it because it is apparently not yet ready for a vote. This speaks to how much discussion is needed on this topic. We need to have a public workshop so that our residents can understand what the proposal looks like and have the opportunity to ask questions and comment – this should happen before the Council takes any vote.