The Middletown Town Council opened its regular meeting with a roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance, and then a vote to move directly into a closed executive session covering eight items, including three land acquisitions and four personnel matters.
According to the Middletown Town Council's published meeting recording, the clerk, Wendy, called the roll and confirmed a quorum — the minimum number of members required to conduct business. Council President Paul M. Rodrigues, Vice President Thomas P. Welch III, Councilor Charles R. Roberts, and Councilor Barbara A. VonVillas answered present. Councilor Christopher M. Logan, Councilor Dennis Turano, and one other councilor were recorded as absent. Before the roll, members can be heard discussing which colleagues were expected to attend, with one noting a councilor had not sent his usual notice.
Closed session items
Rodrigues read the executive session items into the record, citing Rhode Island's Open Meetings Act provisions at sections 42-46-2, 42-46-4 and 42-46-5(a). State law allows a public body to close a meeting for a defined list of subjects, including real estate negotiations, personnel discussions, and litigation strategy.
The items read into the record were:
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- A second land acquisition item
- Land acquisition at 351 East Main Road
- Personnel: town administrator
- Personnel: fire chief
- Personnel: deputy finance director
- Personnel: health services coordinator
- Potential litigation
The listing of three separate land acquisition matters and four personnel matters on a single agenda is the substance available from the recording. No details of the properties, the terms under discussion, or the nature of the personnel questions were stated in open session, and the recording does not indicate what, if anything, the council decided behind closed doors.
The vote to go into closed session
A motion to recess open session and reconvene in executive session was made, seconded, and approved by voice vote. Rodrigues then asked everyone not part of the executive session to leave the room.
What happens next
Under state law, a public body must disclose votes taken in executive session unless disclosure would jeopardize the purpose of the closed discussion, and minutes of the closed session are sealed only to the extent the law allows. Residents who want to know the outcome of the land acquisition and personnel items should watch for the council's report out of executive session and for the approved minutes of this meeting, which are typically posted with the agenda packet for a subsequent regular meeting. Agendas for Middletown public bodies are also filed with the Rhode Island Secretary of State's open meetings portal, where the posted notice for this meeting lists the same executive session items read into the record.