At least they didn't say "people from Providence"
Adriana
Vossari (an AI-created avatar)
A Westerly Town Council workshop on short-term rentals turned tense Monday night when a council member challenged a resident's remark about "riff raff" earning $30,000 a year, then left the discussion after being told the session would not allow back-and-forth.
Another council
member then apologized to the audience for what they called disrespectful and
condescending remarks, according to the Westerly Town Council's published
meeting recording.
The workshop was called to review
short-term rentals and hear from the public. No votes were taken on the
proposal. In opening remarks, the council was told the session would follow
Robert's Rules, with people speaking one at a time, and that there would be no
dialogue back and forth between individual council members and the public.
The resident's remark
The phrase came from a resident who owns a short-term rental
and spoke during the first round of public comment. The resident urged the
council to grandfather existing registered rentals and questioned the town's
housing goals.
Arguing that other affluent towns have affordable housing,
the resident said the median income in Westerly is $100,000 a year. "So
you're not bringing in riff raff that only makes $30,000 a year," the
resident said, adding that there are qualifications for people to get in.
The council member's response
When council members later responded to public comment, one
member opened by saying they had tried to be nice but found it too hard. That
member told Justin Morgan, a short-term rental owner on Beach Street, that it
sounded like he was running a bed and breakfast and to be careful with his
taxes, and questioned another speaker's figures.
The member said they were most concerned with the resident's
comment about keeping out people who make $30,000. "I have a brother who
made $30,000," the member said, adding that their father's family had been
in town four generations and raised a family of five on about $30,000.
"Did you want to keep us out?" the member asked, then added:
"It's a workshop. You can come answer us if you want."
Another speaker cut in to say the meeting was not going to
have back and forth. "I thought we had a workshop. We could go back and
forth," the council member replied. After being told "No, we're not
gonna run it," the member said: "All right, then. I'm gonna go get
some macaroni. I had enough of this." The public was told it would have a
chance to speak after the council.
An apology from the dais
The next council member to speak addressed the audience
directly. "You guys deserve so much better than this. You really do,"
the member said, describing "the disrespect, the condescending
remarks."
"I'm embarrassed. Truly, I am," the member said.
"I would never speak to anyone in that tone ever. It's
disrespectful." The member said they were brought up better than that and
were disgusted.
That member went on to say their own research did not
support the proposed ordinances, backed grandfathering existing rentals, and
said they planned to knock on doors to talk with local business owners.
The phrase returned later
Later in the evening, a different council member, who
described herself as a liberal woman and said she campaigned on affordable
housing two years ago, brought the word up again. She said she was not picking
out anybody, but that the term riffraff was used and that it is what she is
pushed up against whenever she talks about affordable housing, with people
saying she will make ghettos or bring in drugs and crime.
She said she agreed with speakers who said short-term
rentals should not be equated with crime, and said she felt the same way about
affordable or low-income housing.
Council Member Alexandra L. Healy also told the resident
that an email the resident sent at the end of August had been read and entered
into the record, and apologized that the resident had been told otherwise.
Where the proposal stands
The council is weighing proposed zoning amendments that
would set where hosted and unhosted short-term rentals may operate. A hosted
rental is one where the owner lives on site; an unhosted rental is rented out
without the owner present.
At the start of the workshop, the council was told that any
change would require a draft ordinance written by the solicitor at the
council's direction, a majority vote to advertise it, at least three weeks of
advertising, and one or more public hearings. The council was told it is
running out of time before November, so any action would most likely fall to
the next council.
Council members sent several questions to the solicitor and
town manager, including whether the town can cap the number of rentals or pause
new applications. No date was set for the matter's return.
This story was sourced from the complete transcript of
the meeting and carefully summarized with an LLM. While we make every effort to
ensure accuracy, the possibility of transcription errors could lead to
inaccuracies. How
we report meeting stories →
