Comments on School Committee Meeting

To the editor,

I am writing in regards to January 19th, 2016 city council meeting. After watching just a small portion of the meeting, I hope the residents of East Providence are ready to flush out our current politicians. In the beginning of the meeting, Scott Scienzo went up for public comment. The council protocol for public comment was that no one sitting on the board was to address the speaker. Yet several times, during Scott’s limited time slot, he was interrupted during his speech.

Later in the meeting, Jason Desrosiers went up during discussion, about the topic of health benefits for council members. This is the same topic that Scott brought up during public comment. Right off the bat, Mr. Cunha attacked Jason on the stand. When Jason spoke, Mr. Cunha re-asked him his residential address. When Jason answered, Mr. Cunha said “Isn’t that Mr. Riley’s property? So you rent.” The fact that Mr. Cunha had an immediate answer, tells me he went out of his way to prepare to verbally attack Jason before he made his speech. Jason made a point just because he rents, doesn’t mean he doesn’t pay taxes. If he eats at a restaurant in East Providence, he pays the additional 1% tax. He also pays state tax, and also car tax that benefits the city.

Mr. Cunha stated he was embarrassed by cartoons drawn up, and remarks from people. He also said he is sick of listening to people complaining week after week. Maybe if Mr. Cunha got off Facebook, and addressed his constituents concerns, instead of doing research on how to attack people, maybe there would be fewer complaints. Residents need to start asking themselves if they want a politician representing them when some have no respect for renters and spend more time stalking their constituents’ personal lives, rather than better it. When you run for office, you should expect to deal with public backlash. If you can’t handle it, get out of the office.

June Coan

Riverside, RI