Officials share ideas to improve communities at convention

By Kelcy Dolan
Posted 2/4/16

Of the nearly 900 city and town officials who visited the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns’ 15th Annual Convention and Exposition Friday, Warwick had the most participants for any one …

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Officials share ideas to improve communities at convention

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Of the nearly 900 city and town officials who visited the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns’ 15th Annual Convention and Exposition Friday, Warwick had the most participants for any one municipality, according to Mayor Scott Avedisian.

Eighty-seven officials from Warwick visited the convention at the Crowne Plaza throughout the day.

This year’s convention, “Sharing Ideas, Improving Our Communities,” hosted 18 workshops, several of which Avedisian was a speaker for and more than 100 exhibitors including private companies, state and municipal agencies and nonprofits displaying the various services they could provide any one municipality.

Alongside Avedisian, numerous members from the City Council attended the convention: Council President Donna Travis, Councilwomen Camille Vella-Wilkinson and Kathleen Usler and councilmen Edgar Ladouceur and Joseph Gallucci.

Avedisian spoke at two workshops, the first being “the implementation of RI’s Statewide E-Permitting Program,” which outlines the e-permitting process of applying for building, electrical and other permits all online. He has worked on the committee for the past year, with 10 pilot communities. He said Warwick would be one of the first communities in the state to implement the e-permitting. The second panel he was a speaker on was for the “RI STATE and Municipal Planning: Achieving Our Mutual Goals” seminar.

Avedisian showcased the collaborative efforts between the City of Warwick and various non-profit agencies to better serve children. All together, the city has worked with 13 non-profits on this initiative.

Avedisian wrote in an email, “The goal was to assist agencies define mission, stick to mission, and to figure out ways to integrate the eligibility processes among the agencies. If you go to one agency to get services, that information will be shared with all of the entities that participate.”

Avedisian said the convention is a free “training opportunity” for city officials and employees.

Travis said the convention is a way to be exposed to new and inventive initiatives that can be brought back to the city. She said that it was a past convention that gave her the idea and the know how to establish the dog park in her ward.

As a council member she said both the seminars and vendors provide an opportunity to bring new ideas into the city that could benefit constituents and “improve the quality of life” within the city.

With officials from all over the state, Travis said the convention is an opportune time to create working relationships with other cities to bond and network.

“You learn so much from these conventions,” she said. “A city can avoid problems and disasters by learning from others’ mistakes and take the ideas that worked and put them into practice in their own cities. That’s the goal.”

Vella-Wilkinson agreed and said, “We learn best practices from throughout the state, what has and hasn’t worked. This is how we can get a leg up as a city.”

Vella-Wilkinson attended a seminar on cesspools and heard about some different payment plans used in other cities and wants to bring some of those ideas to Warwick, to ease the financial burden on local citizens who have to make the switch to sewers.

Both Travis and Vella-Wilkinson were interested in different recreational opportunities for their respective wards. Both said they would like to see improvements to skate parks and playgrounds.

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