Since Mayor Joseph Solomon assumed mayoral duties in May of 2018 following the departure of long-tenured mayor Scott Avedisian, the perception emanating from City Hall has been one of long-awaited cohesion – an environment where the executive branch and legislative branch have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship the likes of which had not seen in many years.

In the months leading up to the change in the corner office, spats between the council and Avedisian were a regular occurrence. Solomon, then as council president, made no secret of his distaste for Avedisian, regularly criticizing his administrative decisions and lack of communication with the council from the pulpit at council meetings – criticisms that were often concurred with by the likes of now-Council President Steve Merolla and finance committee chairman Ed Ladouceur, among others.

With the passing of the torch seemed to come a new dawn for politics in Warwick, at least among those politicians who call City Hall their headquarters. There was a renewed sense of optimism akin to when a single political party sweeps a national election and has full control of the country’s direction

Praise for Solomon – who quickly shaped his administration in his image and to his liking, with most Avedisian-era directors at this point now removed, retired or resigned – was widespread among local legislators throughout his first year in office due to actions like making department heads more accountable to the council, requesting more stringent financial oversight and generally shaking up the status quo.

“I know I speak for everyone when I say we've turned a page and a new chapter,” Ladouceur said during the first city council meeting following Solomon’s installation as acting mayor on May 21, 2018.

But all good books have conflict within their pages, and no city run by a collective of individuals can progress in perpetuity without it – nor should it, for that matter.

Recent months have brought about the revealing of new issues or development of existing issues that have landed Solomon and certain city council members on opposite sides of the table. While it would not be accurate at this time to say that there is some sort of rift forming within City Hall, it is at the very least interesting to note the recent change in tenor, and to note some of the less-than-covert shots fired from the legislative branch towards Solomon as a result of these issues.

Most recently, the city council and Mayor Solomon have been at odds regarding how to handle an additional appropriation of funding to the Warwick School Department – an issue that will, unless something goes horribly wrong, finally be decided during a special meeting tonight.

Originally aligned in their decision to provide only a fraction of the school department’s $8.5 million funding request, the city council has since been the force pushing for additional money to be allocated, no doubt as a result of the outstanding public pressure they’ve received. While Solomon had focused on trying to find alternative ways to ensure sports could run – ideas that, while outside the box, had little likelihood of being viable – it was the council that worked with the school committee to draw up resolutions that have been passed back and forth and now will go for what appear to be final votes this week.

In recent meetings, it has become obvious there is some frustrations between Merolla and Solomon regarding the school budget crisis, as Merolla has had to endure multiple meetings full of angry students, parents and constituents protesting the $7.7 million in cuts that had to be made as a result of that original appropriation back in May.

“As we all know there's three branches of government that are involved in this process. One is the legislative branch, one is the school committee and the other branch is the mayor. I know that two of us are here today talking about these issues, quite frankly, taking all the heat,” Merolla said during the recent meeting on July 15. “I didn't run for mayor, and neither did any of you.”

The big issue of contention is now where that additional $4 million for the schools will come from.

The council targeted a few key areas, including the city’s contractual contingency item, which would safeguard the city against increased expenses from newly-reached collective bargaining agreements, the fire department’s overtime budget and a $1 million drawdown from the city’s free cash reserves – in addition to a little over $1 million reduction from the city’s $4 million road paving budget.

Solomon released a lengthy letter shortly after the council’s resolution was released last week, which essentially changed the entirety of the council’s sources for funding. He deemed taking the entirety of the contractual obligations line, the overtime budget and touching the rainy-day fund as “fiscally irresponsible” and proposed his own list of places to find the money, which most crucially includes reducing the road paving budget by $3 million (75 percent of the budgeted amount).

Given the stark contrast between the lists, it is a clear-cut example – perhaps the first solid one since taking over as mayor – where the council has apparently not been directly working with Solomon towards the solution of a major problem in the city. Merolla expressed his disagreement with Solomon’s list in the other story about the resolutions running in today’s paper.

However, Merolla contends that this does not reflect anything more than government functioning as it is meant to.

“The whole idea of government is to have checks and balances. To me it's not personal,” he said. “I don't see it as a rift if you have a disagreement over an issue that comes before you.”

Elsewhere, Merolla has disagreed with Solomon regarding his decision to replace longtime Municipal Court Judge Joel Gerstenblatt with two new appointees – one of whom is the daughter of Ward 4 Councilman James McElroy and the other is the son of a longtime friend of Solomon’s.

Merolla implied at the July 15 council meeting that the decision wasn’t in the best interest of the taxpayers, since Gerstenblatt would collect a pension upon leaving the city. Solomon shot back by saying that since the public wouldn’t have to pay into Gerstenblatt’s pension anymore, in the long run – combined with the fact that the two new appointees would be part-time and not collect healthcare or pension benefits – the move was a cost saving measure and that, “Anyone who thinks differently than that, clearly doesn't understand how the pension system operates.”

Considered a close ally, Ladouceur was stung when Solomon put the brakes on the Bayside sewer project in order to gain a firm hold on costs when it was believed long waited construction on the system would start this summer. Ladouceur fears the delay, which now looks like a year, will just push up costs to homeowners.

In the even bigger picture, Solomon and Merolla led the charge in outlining the potential for financial disaster looming over Warwick as a result of unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities and the inability for Warwick to raise enough through taxes to sufficiently address these ballooning costs. Solomon held a State of the City in February, in which he described a “poor prognosis” for the city’s future.

Since that time, however, Solomon has reacted defensively to even mere suggestions that Warwick’s financial condition is doing anything but improving. Meanwhile, Merolla has continued to trumpet concern regarding OPEB liability and costs associated with retiree benefits and pensions that many deem to be unsustainable. Merolla has not denied the possibility of receivership being in Warwick’s future if things do not change systemically, as Solomon has.

“The message needs to be to everyone that if we don't come together and make these decisions collectively, there is another branch that will make it for us. Because that's what it's coming down to. If we don't make these tough decisions now, they will be made for us,” he said on July 15. “I think people first have to believe there is a problem, and I think that's part of the issues that we're confronted with.”

However, Merolla made to point out on Monday that focusing on big picture financial issues is a particularly challenging endeavor when dealing with a new short-term crisis seemingly every week, as he said Solomon has had to deal with. He also mentioned the city losing most of its financial department right as the FY19 budget cycle was kicking into gear as a serious obstacle Solomon had to overcome.

“It's kind of hard to work on the big picture items when you're working on the crisis of the day,” Merolla said. “I think that's what you've been seeing the first six months of this year.”

Mayor Solomon also indicated that there was no unrest in City Hall, and that the executive and legislative branches continued to work together towards solutions of the city's issues.

"We spoke with the Mayor and he said there is no unrest," said press secretary Courtney Marciano in an email. "In fact, he continues to collaborate in a productive manner with the City Council. The Mayor thinks it’s important to point out, that just because there is a difference of opinion regarding various topics doesn’t mean there is unrest— there can be different approaches to resolve the issues at hand. With the rapid pace relative to the school budget,  the Mayor is confident that he, along with the School Committee and City Council, will continue to work together to bring about a positive resolution to the funding issue."